Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian

Job Description

The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida seek a collaborative and engaging Copyright & Scholarly Communications Librarian to provide leadership and direct outreach and support to the University community on issues related to scholarly communications, intellectual property law and policy, and open scholarship. This twelve-month, tenure-track faculty position advocates for, develops, and delivers timely educational and instructional programs relevant to the evolving intellectual property and scholarly communications ecosystems.

The Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian builds and maintains strong, collegial relationships across the Libraries and campus. These relationships support the development of collaborations and partnerships that reflect the University’s Core Values and support a wide variety of services and programs that contribute to the University’s education, research, and service missions. This position provides expertise in alternative publishing models, open scholarship, author rights, copyright, and compliance with public-access requirements for federally funded research and is responsible for tracking trends that affect access to scholarly information. This position also supports and informs policies for the UF Author Rights Policy, LibraryPress@UF, Affordable UF, the Institutional Repository at the University of Florida (IR@UF), and other campus support programs and initiatives.

As a member of the Academic Research Consulting & Services (ARCS) Department, this position contributes to shared departmental and Libraries-wide goals and collaborates with existing ARCS specialists providing services on a wide range of research methodologies and scholarly communications issues.

The Smathers Libraries is committed to creating a thoughtful, equitable, and inclusive culture that provides space for innovation and creativity. We support that commitment by offering fulfilling work experience that allows for collaboration, growth, and development, as well as shared perspectives. The Libraries encourage broad participation in reaching decisions; consequently, the incumbent will contribute to discussions, provide input, and serve on various committees and teams, as well as participate in shared-governance activities. Finally, as a tenure-track faculty member, this position will pursue professional development opportunities, including producing research, scholarship, and/or creative works and providing service to the Libraries, University, State, and Profession to meet the criteria for tenure and promotion.

RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Provides expert guidance to all UF stakeholders on intellectual property, policy, and ethical issues, liaising with a variety of campus units as needed
2. Develops and maintains an instructional and consultation program that empowers 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
3. Provides individualized reference and consultative services relevant to the position’s duties
4. Fosters and supports partnerships within the Libraries and across campus to advise and guide policy and decision-making related to supporting and maintaining the IR@UF and library platforms that support digital scholarship and pedagogy
5. Collaborates with and provides guidance to library colleagues who frequently navigate intellectual property and open scholarship-related issues in implementing initiatives and serving users
6. Leverages knowledge of domestic and global trends, particularly around models of scholarly dissemination and publishing, to enable broader dissemination of UF’s scholarly and creative contributions, increase public access to scholarship and information resources, and educate stakeholders on the opportunities and challenges faced
7. Monitors national and international legal issues that impact the intellectual property and scholarly communications ecosystems, informs and educates the UF community of their significance, and participates in campus efforts to ensure that scholars, students, and libraries retain the full benefits of the current and evolving ecosystems
8. Engages in scholarly, creative, and professional service activities as related to assignment and in accordance with tenure and promotion criteria

Qualifications

Required:

• Master’s degree in library science from an ALA-accredited institution or advanced degree in a relevant field
• Eight years of relevant experience is required, of which five years must emphasize scholarly communication issues in libraries, academia, scientific or scholarly publishing, or other relevant settings
• Extensive knowledge of U.S. copyright law and policy, especially as it applies to the application of Fair Use Doctrine and reuse permissions in academic and research settings
• Knowledge of international copyright law and policy, especially as it applies to digitization and digital humanities projects
• Practical experience with Open Education Resources, course text affordability initiatives, current library course reserves and interlibrary loan practices, controlled digital lending, and shared collections initiatives
• Practical experience with author publishing agreements, Creative Commons licenses, open access publishing models, publisher licensing practices, researcher IDs (ORCID), and other issues and trends relevant to the scholarly communications landscape
• Demonstrated experience providing one-on-one and group consultations to users and advising colleagues and administrators
• Demonstrated experience in developing and delivering instructional sessions to a wide variety of stakeholders in both classroom and professional development settings
• Evidence of excellent interpersonal skills, including oral and written communication
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively with diverse internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong potential to meet the requirements for promotion and tenure outlined in the Libraries by-laws

Preferred:

• Juris Doctor degree.
• Twelve years of experience with an emphasis on scholarly communication issues in libraries, academia, scientific or scholarly publishing, or other relevant settings.
• Record of increasing responsibility and emerging leadership in an academic setting
• Knowledge of the academic research enterprise and related infrastructures and systems; the research lifecycle; grants and research funding; funder mandates and compliance; and research integrity and ethics; and scholarly publishing and dissemination
• Enthusiasm for engaging with emerging trends and technologies that have implications on intellectual property and scholarly communications, especially Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, data science, research data management, public and 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