Head of Licensing & E-resources Acquisitions

Head of Licensing & E-resources Acquisitions

Department: Resource Acquisitions & Metadata Services

Rank and Salary: Associate - Librarian ($64,930 - $87,043)

Position Availability: Immediately

Application deadline for first consideration: February 3, 2022

The UCLA Library seeks a highly collaborative and organized individual to support the research, teaching and learning mission of the Library by leading staff responsible for managing the life cycle of the Library’s electronic resources, including acquisition, licensing, discovery, access, maintenance, and evaluation. The ideal candidate will have a firm understanding of the electronic resource life cycle, and demonstrated success in working in a highly collaborative environment.  The Head of the Licensing & E-resources Acquisitions (LEA) team will join the Library during an exciting period of transformation, as we implement a new Integrated Library System and expand collaboration within the University of California system.

Position Duties

Reporting to the Continuing Resources Management Team Leader, the incumbent is responsible for licensing, acquiring, and managing the Libraries' electronic resources.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Serves as supervisor of LEA staff employees, including hiring, training, evaluating, mentoring, and developing acquisitions and e-resource management competencies
• Holds direct responsibility for operations, workflows, and special projects involving ordering, payment, receipt, processing, and access to e-resources of all types
• Organizes efforts to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of policies, procedures and workflow for selection, acquisition, and processing for e-resources, as well as ensures that workflows are coordinated with other units to ensure effective operations and productivity
• Fosters effective working relationships with peers, stakeholders, and library partners, and facilitates communication with other units, departments and colleagues, including other technical services staff, the Collection Strategies Librarian, and subject specialists and liaisons
• In collaboration with the Licensing and Collection Services Specialist (LCSS), and in consultation with the Associate University Librarian for Collections and Scholarly Communication, reviews, negotiates, and processes licenses for electronic resources
• In collaboration with the Electronic Resources Management Advisory Committee (ERMAC), oversees the implementation and management of the Library’s e-resources in the Systemwide Integrated Library System (SILS) and A-Z Database List
• Explores and pursues means by which acquisitions operations can provide support to open access goals
• Identifies and advocates for, as well as participates in the development of standards needed to support acquisitions and e-resource management work
• Liaises with subject librarians, the California Digital Library, and resource vendors during negotiations to obtain favorable terms for pricing and access
• Manages processes related to updating and maintaining holdings in the Library’s SILS
• Manages processes related to the acquisitions of electronic resources, and assists as needed to process orders
• Assists as needed with troubleshooting problems with e-resource acquisition, management, access, and evaluation
• Initiates and manages electronic resource trials
• Provides training and support in the areas of electronic resource acquisitions and management
• Develops and manages workflows and documentation to support the acquisition and management of electronic resources and proactively mitigates electronic access issues
• Monitors trends and best practices related to electronic resource access, discoverability, data harvesting, usage analysis, and preservation to enhance library services

The successful candidate will be committed to promoting and enhancing diversity through engagement with and promotion of the [UCLA Principles of Community]( http://www.ucla.edu/about/mission-and-values); possess excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a team environment; display a strong service orientation and interest in anticipating and supporting information users’ values and needs; and have excellent analytical, organizational, problem-solving, oral and written communication, and time-management skills to effectively balance multiple assignments and projects.

Basic Qualifications

• ALA-accredited Master's Degree in Library or Information Science OR significant graduate-level coursework toward such a degree OR equivalent education and experience (subject expertise combined with professional library education and/or experience).
• Experience in a management, supervisory or team leader position coaching, mentoring and/or managing personnel in a library or similar environment
• Experience in library e-resource management, acquisitions, and licensing in an academic environment
• Knowledge of current and emerging trends and technologies related to library services
• Knowledge of core concepts of acquiring, receiving, cataloging, processing, database maintenance, integrated systems, library financial management, and vendor relations
• Knowledge of resource licensing concepts and language
• Experience developing, managing and evaluating processes, workflows and related documentation

**Applicants with all the above basic qualifications and any of the following preferred qualifications or professional experiences are strongly encouraged to apply:** 1) Experience in licensing electronic resources. 2) Experience in electronic resource acquisitions and management.

General Information

Professional librarians at UCLA are academic appointees. Librarians at UCLA are represented by an exclusive bargaining agent, University Council – American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT). This is a represented position. They are entitled to appropriate professional leave, two days per month of vacation leave, one day per month of sick leave, and all other benefits granted to non-faculty academic personnel. The University has an excellent retirement system and sponsors a variety of group health, dental, vision, and life insurance plans in addition to other benefits. Relocation assistance may be provided.

Appointees to the librarian series at UC shall have professional backgrounds that demonstrate a high degree of creativity, teamwork, and flexibility.  Such background will normally include a professional degree from an ALA-accredited library and information science graduate program.  In addition to professional competence and quality of service within the library in the primary job, advancement in the librarian series requires professional involvement and contributions outside of the library, and/or university and community service, and/or scholarly activities.  Candidates must show evidence or promise of such contributions.

Application Procedures

Anyone wishing to be considered for this position should apply here: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF07158

Applications must include:

• a cover letter describing qualifications and experience;
• a current resume/vitae detailing education and relevant experience; and
• the names and contact information for three professional references, including a current or previous supervisor.

Candidates applying by February 3, 2022 will be given first consideration for this position.  UCLA welcomes and encourages diversity and seeks applications and nominations from women and minorities.  UCLA seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of our commitment to serve the people of California, to maintain the excellence of the university, and to offer our students richly varied disciplines, perspectives, and ways of knowing and learning.

Description of Unit

Resource Acquisitions & Metadata Services (RAMS) provides critical support to the education, research, and service mission of UCLA.  The department is part of the Library’s Collection Management & Scholarly Communication division, which also includes Preservation, Scholarly Communication, and the Southern Regional Library Facility.  The department in concert with the Library is actively engaged with partners on campus and with other University of California (UC) libraries to provide extensive resources and services to advance information discovery for research, scholarship, and creativity in a dynamically evolving teaching and learning environment.

RAMS manages the ordering, receiving, and invoicing activities for seven of the UCLA campus libraries and oversees the transportation of materials between 15 campus locations. Each year the department processes approximately 438,000 domestic and international items, representing new titles or added volumes to existing monographic sets and serials.  The expenditures for tangible and online resources are part of a Library materials budget of approximately $13,000,000.  Members of the department advise and consult with members of the campus community and others on acquisition/processing of purchased, licensed, and gift material.  The department is exploring new efficiencies and practices, including a shared approval plan and a broad array of shelf-ready arrangements with various vendors in order to free up staff to take on new roles.  Such potential new roles include tracking and acquiring open access copies of local researchers’ scholarly output.   

The department also functions as the main cataloging unit in the UCLA Library system.  It serves the cataloging needs of the Arts, Biomedical, Management, Music, Powell, Science & Engineering, and Young Research Libraries, as well as of eight affiliate libraries on campus.  It is primarily responsible for providing access to more than 90,000 new titles annually, including locally-digitized and curated materials, in various formats and languages, using a variety of metadata schemas.  The department creates metadata in support of UCLA’s Digital Library Program.  Members of the department advise and consult with members of the campus community and others on metadata and cataloging issues.  The department is exploring next generation metadata development through BIBFRAME/linked data and actively participating in national efforts to determine how these changes in data format can improve the user experience and obtain greater benefits from structured metadata investments.  The department is also a long-standing member of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging and a significant contributor to BIBCO, CONSER, NACO, and SACO.

The department is comprised of 13 FTE librarians and 32.75 FTE staff.  The management team consists of 8 individuals leading 10 teams: Continuing Resources Management, Data Integrity, Discovery, International Cataloging, Library Express (LibEx), Metadata Services, Licensing and E-Resources Acquisitions, Monographic Acquisitions, Serials Acquisitions, and Subject Specialists. 

The department is committed to a team-based, dynamic, responsive, and customer-focused approach to its work and strives to build a progressive, daring, and innovative culture.

Description of Institution and Library

As one of the world's great public research universities, UCLA integrates education, research, and public service so that each enriches and extends the others. From its beautiful neighborhood campus in a uniquely diverse and vibrant city on the Pacific Rim, teaching and research extend beyond the classroom, office, and lab through active engagement with communities, organizations, projects, and partnerships throughout the region and around the world.

UCLA’s diverse community of scholars encompasses nearly 30,000 undergraduates pursuing 125 majors, 13,000 graduate students in fifty-nine research programs, and 4,000 faculty members including Nobel Laureates; Rhodes Scholars; MacArthur Fellows; winners of the Fields Medal, National Medal of Science, Pritzker Prize, and Pulitzer Prize; and recipients of Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, and Golden Globes. UCLA ranks tenth in the Times of London Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, twelfth in the Academic Ranking of World Universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and fifth in the U.S. by Washington Monthly. The National Research Council ranks forty of its graduate and doctoral research programs among its top ten.

To enable these accomplished students, faculty, and staff to create, disseminate, and apply knowledge for the benefit of global society, the UCLA Library is re-envisioning how it is acquired, synthesized, and shared across academic audiences and with the public.  It was among the first academic libraries to develop subject-specialist librarians and to launch a program to enhance students’ research skills. Its Special Collections pioneered the acquisition by public institutions of rare and unique books, children’s literature, pulp and detective fiction, works by or about women and minorities, screenplays, architectural plans, and Los Angeles-related materials and today leads the way in collecting archival resources in digital format such as emails and manuscripts.  It has launched innovative data management services and an affordable course materials initiative that have served as models for other libraries.

The Library serves UCLA students, faculty, and staff whenever and wherever they need its resources and expertise. Reconfigured, high-tech spaces and services in its ten campus libraries enable users and librarians to explore and work with print and digital materials collaboratively or individually, pursue new lines of inquiry, and develop new pedagogical approaches as well as novel forms of scholarship.  More than 3.5 million people visit annually, while an additional 3.4 million visitors enter online through its virtual front doors.

Whether on campus or online, the Library forms the intellectual heart of UCLA, a hub for cutting-edge discovery, scholarship, and instruction.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the University of California and key components of the University’s commitment to excellence.  The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status.  For the complete University of California policy on discrimination, harassment, and affirmative action see:  [University of California – Policy Discrimination, Harassment, and Affirmative Action in the Workplace](https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/DiscHarassAffirmAction)

Under federal law, the University of California may employ only individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States as established by providing documents specified in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.  Employment is contingent upon completion of satisfactory background investigation.

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