Scholarly Communications and OER Librarian

Florida Atlantic University•Boca Raton, FL

19h•Onsite

About The Position

Established in 1964 as the first public university in southeast Florida, Florida Atlantic University serves 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students on six campuses along Florida's beautiful southeast coast in Broward, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie counties. Florida Atlantic has ten distinguished colleges that offer more than 180-degree programs, including the Schmidt College of Medicine, and is home to one of the world's preeminent marine science education and research centers, the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. Florida Atlantic University is taking its place among the world's great research centers and has been given the designation of a "High Research Activity" university by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Florida Atlantic is one of only 21 institutions in the nation to earn both Carnegie R1 and Opportunity University designations as well as achieving Community Engagement distinctions and Top 100 ranking. Florida Atlantic University Libraries are focused on working collaboratively with this distinguished campus community on research initiatives and prioritizing student engagement and success. Florida Atlantic Libraries house approximately 3.7 million items and provide access to over 80,000 electronic journals, nearly 500 databases, and a growing collection of e-books and streaming videos. The Libraries house many distinctive collections, including artists’ books, sound recordings, print music, rare books and manuscripts, and University Archives. The Digital Initiatives and Scholarship Unit provides the Research Hub learning space for graduate students, post-docs, doctoral students, researchers, visiting scholars, and community users. In addition, Digital Initiatives and Scholarship creates online collections from unique materials held in Special Collections and University Archives, serving as the University's repository for intellectual output generated on campus including Florida Atlantic University created journals and curated displays. Reporting directly to the Assistant Dean for Access, Research, and Learning Services, the Scholarly Communications and OER Librarian provides strategic leadership, campus-wide outreach, and consultative support to the University community on issues related to scholarly communications, copyright, open access, and open education. This position delivers focused programming, consultations, and initiatives that promote faculty, student, and staff engagement with Open Educational Resources (OER), scholarly publishing, and open pedagogy, supporting research productivity and student success. The role offers expertise in alternative publishing models, open scholarship, author rights, copyright interpretation, and compliance with public-access requirements for federally funded research, including guidance on institutional repository participation and ORCID ID integration to enhance research visibility and impact. The successful candidate also monitors trends in scholarly publishing, including predatory practices and changing licensing models, to help the University community make informed decisions about sharing and protecting their research. The Florida Atlantic University Libraries seek a student focused, high-energy, collaborative, organized, engaged, positive, innovative, strong written and verbal communicator, and self-starter, who adapts well to change and can manage multiple projects with the ability to prioritize effectively. We endeavor to be a highly engaged organization that believes in striving for excellence, utilizing assessment and data for decision-making, and maintaining a culture of appreciation/gratitude, as a R1/Top 100 University with “Opportunity Colleges and Universities” and Community Engagement distinctions. Successful candidates are also expected to demonstrate commitment to professional development and lifelong learning and user engagement. This position will primarily work on the Boca Raton Campus but may at times be asked to work at one of five other Florida Atlantic campuses.

Requirements

ALA-accredited Master’s degree in Library and Information Science or equivalent.
Minimum of three years of experience emphasizing scholarly communication issues in academic, special, or research libraries.
Knowledge of U.S. and international copyright law and policy, particularly as it applies to Fair Use, reuse permissions, digitization, and digital humanities projects in academic and research settings.
Knowledge of Open Education Resources (OER), course materials affordability initiatives, current library course reserves and interlibrary loan practices, controlled digital lending, and shared collections initiatives.
Knowledge of institutional repositories, author publishing agreements, Creative Commons licenses, open access publishing models, publisher licensing practices, predatory publishing, researcher IDs (ORCID), and other issues and trends relevant to the scholarly communications landscape.
Experience providing instruction sessions, presentations, and one-on-one and group consultations to users and advising colleagues and administrators.
Demonstrates ability to work independently and collaboratively as both a team member and leader, with flexibility, creativity, and cooperation.
Experience in teaching and facilitating the learning of individuals.
Demonstrates strong organization skills and excellent oral and written communication skills.
Ability to use information technologies for effective communication and work productivity.
Demonstrates initiative and strong interpersonal skills with a high level of professionalism and exceptional work ethic.
Ability to analyze and adapt to change in an ever-evolving and rapidly growing institution.

Nice To Haves

Second Master’s degree and/or doctorate in process.
Five years of experience emphasizing scholarly communication issues in libraries, academia, scientific or scholarly publishing, or other relevant settings.
Enthusiasm for emerging trends and technologies impacting intellectual property and scholarly communications, including AI, data science, research data management, open scholarship, and scholarly impact.
Experience performing assessments and creating reports and presentations to inform a wide variety of stakeholders and community members.
Experience with supporting institutional repositories and/or digital libraries from an intellectual property and scholarly communications role in a comparable environment.
Higher education outreach and engagement experience.
Demonstrates sustained record of scholarship, research, and/or creative endeavors.
Demonstrates record of service on committees, including professional committees, with leadership roles on committees and projects.
Experience using Scopus/SciVal.
Experience using Digital Commons.
Experience working with an integrated library system (ILS) and discovery tool (e.g., Ex Libris Alma/Primo VE).
Experience using Canvas Learning Management System.
Experience working in a multi-campus environment or multi-institutional consortia.

Responsibilities

Serve as the Libraries’ primary contact for scholarly communication questions and initiatives and strengthens the Libraries’ leadership role in scholarly communications for Florida Atlantic.
Lead development and implementation of policies relating to copyright, open licensing, data sets and attribution of Creative Commons licensed materials.
Deliver timely presentations and educational and instructional programs, empowering faculty, staff, students, and community partners to make informed decisions regarding copyright and fair use; authors rights and open access publishing; institutional and open repositories; and other related topics.
Support and educate the campus community regarding scholarly communications, copyright, open access, transformative publishing agreements, open education, and systematic reviews.
Participate in outreach services to promote faculty, student, and staff engagement with Open Educational Resources, Scholarly Publishing, and Open Pedagogy.
Promote and market open access, OER, and other issues related to scholarly communications to faculty and researchers in collaboration with liaison librarians, Libraries’ External Relations, and campus stakeholders.
Create workshops, subject guides, and social media content for Open Access Week, literature reviews, plagiarism, and artificial intelligence.
Serve as an advocate for open practices across campus, including the use of open resources, open and affordable learning materials, open data, and access to free data sets.
Educate and support grant applications for students and faculty.
Support faculty in adopting and creating open educational resources (OER) and promote open pedagogy practices, including renewable assignments and student knowledge creation.
Work with Libraries’ Administration, liaisons, and University departments to raise awareness and encourage and generate broad participation in advancing course material affordability initiatives including adopting OER into their curriculum and low or no-cost textbook alternatives.
Actively support and promote the Libraries’ physical and electronic textbook reserve initiatives including working with the Florida Atlantic bookstore, students, and faculty to request donations for textbooks for the Libraries’ Textbook Reserve collections at the Boca Raton and Jupiter Campus libraries.
Investigate creating Textbook Reserve collection at the Florida Atlantic Davie and Fort Lauderdale campus locations.
Create and/or maintain research guides and other documentation on resources and best practices regarding scholarly communication, OER, and predatory publishing.
Serve as a champion for the institutional repository (IR) and share responsibility for IR management.
Stay current and track trends on regional, national, and international developments in the field (e.g. copyright, bibliometrics, scholarly publishing, open access/open educational resources) including maintaining a national and global professional scholarly communications network to enhance current awareness of open knowledge practices and possibilities.
Evaluate open access initiatives and tools or services that support scholarly communication and advise Libraries’ Administration on policy development.
Assist with annual collection of ACRL statistics.
Serve as the Libraries representative to scholarly communications related groups and ad hoc committees including serving on the Textbook Transparency and Affordability Committee (a University level committee co-chaired by the Libraries and the Provost’s Office).
Provide periodic assessments of the campus environment about scholarly communication issues and works with appropriate units to identify gaps in services and knowledge.
Participate in Florida Atlantic programs and events that promote student recruitment, academic preparedness, engagement, and graduation.
Participate in Libraries’ liaison program including development and review of research guides in assigned discipline.
Support the Libraries’ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other strategic initiatives.
Support efforts to maintain R1/Top 100 status for the University and the Libraries.
Participate in Libraries’ engagement events.
Contribute to developing and strengthening a positive view of the Florida Atlantic Libraries as an active partner in the University’s educational and research mission and assist with promoting the Libraries’ needs and services.
Develop an annual professional development plan.
Investigate opportunities to carry out, publish, and present original scholarship, research, and scholarly projects related to the area of expertise or responsibility.
Serve on appropriate Libraries, University, regional state or national committees including professional committees, and actively participate in Libraries’ and campus faculty governance.
Perform other job-related duties as assigned.

Benefits

Position is a non-tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant or Associate University Librarian on a 12-month contract with service and sustained expectation of scholarship, research, and/or creative endeavors (as outlined in the FAU Libraries’ Promotion Guidelines: https://library.fau.edu/staff/faculty/promotion-guidelines) required for promotion.
FAU Libraries offers (as budget permits): Financial support for professional memberships.
Financial support for professional development participation, leadership, and service activities including travel.
Excellent benefit packages including Medical (PPO/HMO $50 per month single & $180 per month family), Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Flexible Spending plans, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and much more.
State retirement options including tax-deferred annuities and Roth 403(b) plans.
State employees Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.
Sick Leave Pool Program.
Paid time off (eligible employees) including vacation and sick leave, 1 personal day, 9 paid holidays, and paid winter break (at President’s discretion).
Paid Community Engagement Volunteer Service Day
Employee Educational Scholarship Program (EESP) for eligible Staff/Faculty - Tuition assistance after 6 months of full-time employment. For in-unit faculty, the EESP program may be extended to spouses and dependent children (eligibility rules apply).