About

Bates is one of the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges, with a long history of commitments to principles of human dignity and diversity.

Founded by abolitionists in 1855, Bates has been coeducational and has welcomed students regardless of race and ethnicity since its founding. The college’s commitment to academic excellence, intellectual exploration, inclusivity, and engaged citizenship defines its character.

Bates offers a rigorous and highly personalized education that centers on deep and sustained interactions among students, faculty, and community. Bates engages the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.

Bates has about 2,000 students from a wide variety of backgrounds. The student body represents 44 states and 53 countries; approximately 23 percent are domestic students of color, 7 percent of students are international, and 13 percent of all students are first generation to college.

The College has 210 faculty members and 750 staff and administrative employees. As one of the top employers in the state, Bates recruits its faculty and staff nationally, regionally, and locally. They consist of diverse individuals with a broad range of intellectual, professional, and personal experience.

Bates is proud of its deep roots in the Lewiston/Auburn community, an urban center with a demographically diverse population of approximately 65,000 people. With a rich industrial past, Lewiston/ Auburn has seen great transition in the last 30 years and offers opportunities for cultural enrichment and meaningful community-engaged learning and leadership. Bates is located on a beautiful, 109-acre, traditional New England campus in Lewiston, a small city enjoying an exciting economic and cultural revitalization. Bates is 35 miles north of Portland, 140 miles north of Boston, and 340 miles north of New York City.

The Position

The Bates College Library is searching for a Metadata Librarian who will move forward with opportunities afforded by various metadata schema/designs while being firmly rooted in MARC/RDA systems. The Metadata Librarian initiates outreach opportunities with Bates faculty and staff in order to advise on the application of appropriate current and emerging metadata schema to facilitate access to digital materials that support the broad educational mission of the college or document its history. The Metadata Librarian works in a collaborative library setting to provide patrons access to all formats of material in a timely, efficient, and informative manner, creating original catalog records and enhancing existing records in WorldCat and the local catalog (Innovative Interfaces) according to national standards.

Key Accountabilities

• Advises in the evaluation and selection of current and emerging metadata schema for the organization of data and presentation of digital objects created or curated by Bates faculty or staff.
• Collaborates with library staff in Collections and Muskie Archives in developing strategies for organizing, presenting, and preserving the full range of digital objects for which the library is responsible. Offers training as needed.
• Creates original bibliographic records for all formats. Catalogs assigned formats of material (in English and other languages), including DVDs, CDs and scores, websites and PDFs, and rare books and manuscripts. Trains and mentors other library staff in cataloged as opportunities arise.
• Monitors and contributes to the development of local, national, and international metadata standards and policies and keeps the department up-to-date with changes in cataloging and cataloging standards.

Additional Job Functions:

• Serves on CBB (Colby, Bates, and Bowdoin) committees and task forces as assigned.
• Represents the Library in state, regional, and national forums related to metadata.
• Fulfills institutional cooperative cataloging commitments for the Library of Congress Name Authority Cooperative (NACO) and the PCC NACO Music Funnel (contingent on expertise and interest).
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

This is a full-time, 12-month staff position.  Occasional travel including day and overnight trips may be required.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will have a Master’s or postgraduate degree in library and information science or equivalent degree/work experience.

The ideal candidate will have:

• 3+ years of original cataloging experience, in a variety of formats, using MARC and RDA.
• Demonstrated experience planning and implementing metadata schema for digital collections.
• Strong outreach, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated knowledge of metadata standards and schema (e.g., MARC, Dublin Core), content standards (e.g., RDA, DACS) and controlled vocabularies and classification (e.g., LC authorities, subject thesauri, LC classification).
• Understanding of linked data principles (e.g., BIBFRAME, RDF).
• Knowledge of digital systems (e.g., Digital Commons, Islandora).
• Knowledge of programming/scripting languages and/or tools for data manipulation (e.g., MarcEdit, OpenRefine).
• Commitment to diversity and inclusivity and to serving the needs of a culturally and educationally diverse and inclusive community with diplomacy and tact.
• Successful completion of a criminal background check.

Benefits

Bates College offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits (health, dental, 9% retirement contribution with potential for an additional 3% match, 24 days of vacation*, 12 paid holidays, free parking, access to library and athletic facilities & more) and a supportive, collegial environment in a drug- and smoke-free workplace.