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
