Email list hosting service & mailing list manager


Vacancy Announcement: Head of the Continuing Resources Unit at the National Agricultural Library Shrader, Tina 22 Mar 2007 16:32 UTC

The National Agricultural Library has an opening for the position of
Head of the Continuing Resources Unit within the Acquisitions and
Collection Development Branch.  The duties statement for the position is
attached below.  Specific information on the position and how to apply
can be found at the USAJOBS site at:

http://jobsearch.usajobs.opm.gov/getjob.asp?JobID=55363914&AVSDM=2007%2D
03%2D22+10%3A09%3A10&Logo=0&q=Supervisory+Librarian&FedEmp=N&sort=rv&vw=
d&brd=3876&ss=0&FedPub=Y&SUBMIT1.x=0&SUBMIT1.y=0

The National Agricultural Library (NAL), http://www.nal.usda.gov, the
largest agricultural library in the world, has been serving the nation's
agricultural community since 1862.  Established by Congress, its
mission, stated simply, is "to ensure and enhance access to agricultural
information for a better quality of life".  NAL's work in collecting,
preserving, and making agricultural information available is fundamental
to the continued well being and growth of U.S. agriculture, and the
development of food supplies for the nation and the world.  NAL has
three divisions, the Technical Services Division, the Public Services
Division and the Information Systems Division and employs approximately
160 federal employees and 40 contract employees.

The Library is located at the Abraham Lincoln Building in Beltsville,
Maryland, near the intersection of U.S. Route 1 and Interstate Route
95/495 (Beltway Exit 25-North), Beltsville, Maryland, USA, 15 miles
northeast of Washington, DC.   NAL offers free employee parking.  A
courtesy shuttle to the Greenbelt Metro Station and a metro
transportation subsidy are available.  NAL is located near the George
Washington Carver Center and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
where on-site childcare, cafeteria, and other amenities are available.
Restaurants and shopping are located in close proximity to NAL.  For
additional information about the National Agricultural Library, you can
access the NAL homepage at http://www.nal.usda.gov.

The Acquisitions & Collection Development Branch is responsible for
administering programs for collection development and acquisition of
library materials in various published formats and media in agriculture
and related sciences in all languages from various sources on a
world-wide basis. The Branch formulates NAL collection development
policies and implements them by allocating funds, reviewing source
literature for works of interest, selecting those in scope, receiving
requests and recommendations from NAL service units and subject
specialists, searching databases and records to determine needs,
initiating procurement orders or exchange or gift requests, preparing
descriptive cataloging records for in-process materials, receiving
publications, determining priorities and initiating processing . The
Branch prepares serials data for input to computerized files; receives,
records or discards, and claims issues of current serials; maintains
print and electronic serial holdings records, determines retention, and
binds serial volumes. The Branch creates or initiates and maintains a
variety of records in manual or automated form for use throughout the
Library. The Branch maintains fiscal records, works closely with fiscal
and procurement officers in USDA service agencies, and initiates payment
of invoices through the National Finance Center.  The Branch is
responsible for the licensing/contracting and all other acquisitions
functions for NAL's DigiTop and electronic resource purchases which are
available to USDA personnel world-wide.

The Supervisory Librarian in charge of the Branch's Continuing Resources
Unit directs and coordinates the selection, ordering, payment, and
control of continuing resources in agriculture and related sciences so
that these materials are available for research to USDA scientists and
the agricultural and research and development community on a world-wide
basis.  Specific duties include:

-          Serving as Contract Officer for the purpose of purchasing
serials for the Library and attends relevant courses to maintain an
appropriate level of delegated purchase authority, which involves
approving purchase orders and invoices and maintaining, compiling, and,
as required, submitting statistical and other reports.

-          Managing the NAL Exchange Program and gift subscriptions with
U.S. institutions and with organizations around the world, which
involves coordinating the distribution of USDA publications with the
originating agencies, the Departmental Mailing List System (DMLS), and
recipients and monitoring the agencies' performance, solving problems in
this process, and developing procedures related to the NAL Exchange
Program.

-          Working closely with the Branch Head and the Electronic
Licensing Librarian to ensure that all e-journals acquired for the
collection are appropriately identified within the acquisitions module,
electronic resource management system, and catalog and that updates to
electronic resource holdings are promptly processed by Unit staff.

-          Ensuring that subscriptions received for NAL's signature
database, AGRICOLA, are correctly coded, are received in a prompt and
timely manner by Unit staff, and routed to appropriate personnel in the
Indexing Branch.

-          Reviewing serial selections to determine choice of
acquisition, routing, and preliminary processing methods and monitor
quality of searches, orders, and provisional cataloging performed by
support staff.

-          Serving as liaison with Reference staff, Collection Services,
and Information Center personnel for purposes of filling patron
requests, solving problems related to claiming and filling publication
gaps, and determining workflow between the Branches.

-          Meeting with subscription agents (vendors) from domestic and
foreign companies; negotiating terms of agreements; discussing areas of
concern as well as areas of satisfaction; resolving problems; learning
about new service features; monitoring the performance of subscription
agents to ensure compliance with established agreements and policies and
to ensure  acquisition of purchased serial materials in an expeditious
manner; and communicating with agents as necessary to resolve problems
and ensure adequate service.

-          Ensuring that records for both print and electronic journals
provide the most complete information to NAL patrons.

-          Supervising Unit staff and providing technical, subject, and
language expertise needed to acquire materials from all over the world,
which involves communicating continuing resource ordering and
bibliographic maintenance and policy decisions to Staff and to Branch
Head; planning, scheduling, and evaluating work performed by staff
assigned to the Units; and overseeing staff training.

Tina Shrader
CONSER and Repository Coordinator
National Agricultural Library
tshrader@nal.usda.gov
Phone: 301-504-5210