Research Data Services Librarian

Posted to IASSIST on: 2014-07-21

Employer: Cornell University

Employer URL: http://www.cornell.edu/

Description

The Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER) seeks an innovative, collaborative, and service-oriented data services librarian to support social science researchers across the research data lifecycle.    

CISER has strengths in social and economic data, computational infrastructure, and restricted-access data, as well as a robust data-sharing environment including a data archive that dates to 1981. The successful applicant will spearhead efforts to further develop CISER’s data-rich environment, notably via enhancements to CISER’s Data Archive and by participating in data-intensive collaborations with researchers and other librarians worldwide.

Cornell social scientists are on the cutting edge of interdisciplinary research questions using complex data resources. Growing recognition of the value of interdisciplinary and data-driven research affords CISER and its Cornell partners with opportunities to support numeric, qualitative, geospatial, and other research within a life cycle approach to data management. The individual in this position will play a key role in anticipating, developing, and implementing services to support these activities.

The CISER Research Data Services Librarian position will encompass many skills, capacities, and knowledge areas:

Responsibilities

Enhance and manage CISER’s Data Archive and provide associated data-related support:

• Develop and manage the collection of social and economic datasets in CISER’s Data Archive, including acquisition of new datasets, and continue development and evolution of Data Archive policies such as data citation, documentation, and metadata polices.
• Lead CISER working group to design and implement ongoing structural improvements and innovations in the CISER Data Archive.
• Contribute to efforts to promote and enable the adoption of metadata standards in the social sciences.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to promote the quality of CISER’s Data Archive through meeting accreditation processes and maintaining those accreditations such as Data Seal of Approval and Data-PASS.
• Explore and develop relationships with data providers, service providers, and other archives, as well as innovators/developers that have the potential to enhance CISER’s Data Archive and related services as a resource for our researchers.
• Maintain knowledge of emerging trends within the social sciences:
  • Data trends such as current trends in Administrative data, Big Data, open data, and the interface between business and academic research data.
  • Trends in data service tools and provision in other domains.

Provide support and collaboration across Cornell on the research data management aspects of the social science research data lifecycle:

• Serve on the consultants group of Cornell’s Research Data Management Services Group (RDMSG) to assist social science researchers in the writing and implementation of grant-required data management plans.
• Serve on selected RDMSG implementation teams, per the RDMSG Management Council.
• Provide training through workshops and one-on-one support.
• Lead the design, implementation and evolution of CISER’s Data Archive-related support for research preservation, including creation of processes in coordination with other CISER staff, development and maintenance of standard practices and policies.
• In coordination with other CISER staff, develop/modify the ingest function for a self-deposit repository and mediate with users when active.
• Assist with linking publications to underlying data, data citation, and data licensing.

Establish and grow CISER’s data support and GIS outreach:

• Build relationships with users.
• Provide training and support in the use of numeric, geospatial, and GIS data.
• Locate and acquire digital numeric, geospatial, and GIS data sets and associated software.
• Support data management efforts for numeric and geospatial data.
• Provide data curation services for numeric, geospatial, and GIS data sets.
• Liaise and form productive partnerships with other numeric and geospatial experts on campus, including Cornell University Library (CUL), the Cornell University Geospatial Information Repository (CUGIR), and the Program on Applied Demography (PAD).

Maintain and expand outreach and professional engagement:

• Promote the resources and services of the CISER Data Archive through announcements, presentations, webinars, and other sources to the Cornell community.
• Participate in the writing of proposals to funding agencies and in the execution of accepted proposals for innovations in social science data management.
• Establish and maintain professional relationships between CISER and other organizations and individuals engaged in the pursuit of similar or complementary goals, including at a minimum engagement with some or all of these peer organizations; IASSIST, DCC, APDU, CODATA, and RDA.
• Conduct, present, and publish applied research in areas related to discovery, organization, and usability of social science data resources across their lifecycle.

Coordinate with other CISER data services professionals in the provision of all aspects of data-related services to the Cornell community and external users.

Required Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in Library and Information Science or relevant social science discipline such as economics, statistics, data science.
• Minimum of three to five years’ experience working with large social science datasets and familiarity with major data resources such as ICPSR and the U.S. Census Bureau.
• Knowledge and experience with social science research methodologies, quantitative and qualitative data and statistical software packages such as SAS, Stata, SPSS, or R, including expertise with at least one of these or similar programs.
• Knowledge of research data management planning.
• Strong, demonstrated service orientation.
• Demonstrated excellent analytical and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated evidence of excellent oral and written communications and interpersonal skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with metadata practices and standards such as DDI, SDMX, OASIS, Dublin Core, OAI-PMH, MODS, METS, PREMIS, FGDC or MARC.
• Knowledge of qualitative data analysis software such as Atlas.ti.
• Experience teaching workshops of a technical nature.
• Demonstrated interest in cutting-edge, web-based technologies for augmentation, management, presentation, and manipulation of research data (StatTransfer, Nesstar, DSA, Colectica, etc.); an enthusiasm to promote use of such tools to empower Cornell social scientists.
• Knowledge of GIS data and software, such as ArcGIS.
• Project management experience; demonstrated ability to design, lead, and complete a project within scope.
• Two years plus of supervisory experience.

Archived on: 2014-07-22