Position Description Guidelines for Librarians
The purpose of these guidelines is to provide Librarians, Review Initiators, and Program Directors with a
starting point in crafting individual position descriptions, and to promote a shared understanding of
common functions that fall under the various Library programs.
Definition
“A position description should consist of a concise descriptive statement (normally one page) outlining
present responsibilities. The approximate percentage of time spent in each major area of responsibility
should be included. Such descriptive detail would not typically be repeated in the goals statement or in
the Candidate’s self-evaluation, which is an evaluative appraisal rather than a descriptive statement.”
(ARPM, IV.E.4.c , Revised 11/2007)
Librarian position descriptions at UC San Diego Library describe briefly the job duties of individual
librarians. They are initially prepared by the program director to communicate expectations of the
position to new hires, and are understood to be documents that change over time. All essential
functions should be reflected on one position description.
Guidelines
Position descriptions:
1. Reflect the primary job functions that support criteria 1.A of APM 210-4.e(3) or the AFT MOU
(Article 6.B.2) (professional competence and quality of service within the Library).
2. Are prepared by the Librarian and submitted to their home Program Director and Review
Initiator for discussion, revision, and agreement.
3. Describe the general focus of one’s job responsibilities. Position descriptions provide a basic
overview. More detailed information should be provided in the self review.
4. At the beginning of the document, clearly list the programs to which the librarian is assigned and
the percentage of each assignment. They must add up to 100%.
5. Include (either integrated into job functions or as a separate section):
 UC-wide committees on which membership is required as part of your primary
responsibilities;
 (If needed) Agreed-upon work responsibilities outside of assigned programs, such as UC
San Diego Library committee work and projects.
6. Exclude:
 Professional activity outside the Library;
 University and public service;
 Research and other creative activity;
 Professional development and continuing professional education.
7. Must be signed by the Review Initiator and the home Program Director. Each person who signs
should keep a copy.
8. Secondary Program Directors should be consulted in the creation of the position description and
be provided a copy.
9. Use the template (appended) to provide a standardized header and signature page.
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10. Be succinct; the entire document should not exceed one page (except for signatures).
11. Updating of individual position descriptions:
 Is done as needed to reflect changes in job duties, in consultation with the home
Program Director, Secondary Program Directors, and the Review Initiator;
 Should be done when job duties change or at the time of the next academic review.
12. Librarians whose job duties change significantly between review periods should submit all
relevant position descriptions covering the time period of the review.
Common language for common functions
Standardized descriptions of common functions that occur across the Library are provided below for use
in librarian position descriptions. This standardized language is intended as a starting point; the goal is
to have concise and consistent descriptions to assure common understanding and equity. Use the
language and style as a model for describing unique functions, if not included here. Pick and choose
from the text below as it applies to your position, and modify as appropriate.
Feedback on and the updating of this document
Feedback on this document should be sent to the CAPA Chair, who will compile and include it in the
year-end CAPA report.
CAPA or an ad hoc committee, in consultation with Library Administration, should review this document
after its first use and update it to reflect what was learned, including updating the Common Language
section. Beyond that review, the recommended review cycle is every two years. The ad hoc committee
to do so will be formed by CAPA.
Document created: November 2013
Discussed by Admin and at LAUC-SD, with all changes incorporated to draft: November 22, 2013
Team: Linda Barnhart (chair), Adele Barsh, David Schmitt, Doug Spence
Convened by: Tammy Dearie
Team: Linda Barnhart (chair), Adele Barsh, David Schmitt, Doug Spence
Convened by: Tammy Dearie
Please send any feedback about this document and the guidelines to Adele Barsh, abarsh@ucsd.edu.
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Archives
Responsible for accessioning, appraising, arranging and describing archival and manuscript
collections and for the physical management of these collections.
Meets with donors to appraise potential collections, retrieves accepted materials, and assures
donor trust.
Maintains processed collections and participates in the digitization workflow for selected
collections.
Identifies possible collections for digitization in collaboration with others.
Works with library staff to complete digitization projects, including reviewing digitized files for
quality control, assisting with workflow design, and supervising in-house scanning and data
input.
Collection development
For Selectors:
Within the scope of allocated funds, selects materials in all applicable formats to meet curricular
and research needs of the campus.
Participates in collection management activities including assessment of holdings, deaccessioning and selection of materials to be relocated including to the Annex, SRLF, or other
repositories.
Reviews and provides subject-appropriate feedback for Library-wide and/or UC-wide collections
projects as needed.
Maintains communication and gathers feedback from patrons and/or Library liaison in the
discipline in order to build a collection which best meets the current user needs.
For Collection Coordinators:
Responsible for collection development in area of responsibility, including coordination of
subject and format selectors, assessment, and fund management.
Manages fund allocations within the discipline and recommend other areas for support as
needed to support the academic mission of the campus.
Manages the discipline’s physical space footprint in the UC San Diego Library.
Represents UC San Diego on discipline-appropriate projects initiated by CDL, CLS, and SAG3, as
needed, such as renewals, new titles, cancellations, and campus votes on UC-wide journal and
ebook packages. Coordinates and gathers feedback from selectors within discipline. .
Informs selectors within discipline of collections-related news and decisions from the UC as a
whole.
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Data curation
Engages with campus partners to make digital scholarly work and data openly discoverable and
accessible for the long term.
Develops technical infrastructure, policies, processes, metadata services and communications
related to data curation and repository services.
Provides group presentations and/or one-on-one consultations with researchers on campus.
Trains and partners with liaison librarians for data curation outreach to campus.
Digital library development and services
Advises domain experts on the digitization of library collections and on the management of
born-digital assets.
Coordinates and manages the digitization of library materials through the full project lifecycle,
whether done in-house or by external vendors.
Coordinates the development of digital library project proposals with domain experts and
provides project management services.
Assures consistency across digital collections, efficient and effective workflows, and clear
documentation.
Responsible for the design and maintenance of the public discovery tool that provides access to
digital materials.
Provides broad expertise in the technical infrastructure, metadata needs, user interface
requirements, and preservation policies for digital asset management and workflow.
Instruction
Provides subject specific and general library instruction.
Makes use of current and emerging technologies in instruction.
Remains aware of instructional trends and methods in order to maintain a sound pedagogical
base.
Works to embed instruction into curriculum and research cycle whenever appropriate.
Participates in assessment of library instruction.
Collaborates with faculty to design assignments that integrate library resources and information
literacy learning outcomes.
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Creates materials for online instructional efforts as needed, such as guides, the Library website,
and courseware.
Liaising services
Engages with faculty, graduate students, upper level undergraduates, and researchers, providing
a combination of targeted or specialized services within [a named subject area or group of
disciplines, departments or programs].
Evaluates user needs and curricular trends in [subject areas, disciplines, departments or
programs], and uses subject expertise to customize activities involving communications about
Library resources and for delivering specialized instruction, in-depth research consultations,
collections building, and other services.
Effectively communicates academic research and teaching needs and priorities back to the
Library.
Leadership and Management
Responsible for the vision and leadership of [program or operational area], including ongoing
communications, planning and implementing services and initiatives, establishing policies and
procedures, and setting and monitoring goals.
Provides leadership and functional expertise for [program or operational area].
Coordinates daily operations; designs workflows, oversees projects, promotes the continuous
improvement of work processes and resolves problems.
Administers, manages, and oversees [program] budgets, physical space, and applicable
technology.
Provides direct supervision of [description and number of staff] and indirect supervision of
[description and number of staff]
[For workleaders: Directs the work of [description and number of staff]
Responsible for personnel actions and management, including recruiting, hiring, training, goalsetting, performance management, performance evaluations, succession planning, and staff
development.
Coordinates the [program or operational area’s] needs and services with other Library
[programs or operations] and with the Library’s overall goals.
Metadata services
For catalogers:
Serves as a resource or workleader to library staff by providing expertise in descriptive
cataloging policy, authority work, subject analysis, classification schedules, the MARC21 formats,
electronic resources, and/or online system functionality.
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Investigates, experiments with, and directs implementation of new approaches for
creating,manipulating, acquiring and linking to authority and bibliographic data.
Develops strategies for gathering, sorting analyzing, normalizing, and enriching bibliographic
data.
Performs original and enhance-level cataloging of [specific area]… [using special cataloging
guidelines, special files, and controlled vocabularies].
Coordinates and provides expertise for the UCSD contributions to [and/or creates records for]
the [BIBCO, CONSER, and/or NACO] national program[s].
For metadata specialists:
Provides expertise and advises in metadata analysis, specification, creation, standards,
normalization, aggregation, and indexing.
Prepares instructions for the metadata transformation and ingest of objects and collections into
the Digital Asset Management System (DAMS); reviews instructions prepared by others as
needed.
Provides quality control review of digital objects and metadata following ingest.
Advises on data modeling, vocabulary control, taxonomy and ontology support, database
management, and metadata input and edit tools for the DAMS.
Advises data providers on metadata creation needs; develops project plans for metadata
creation as needed.
Reference services
Serves as the primary [subject-specific] specialist for research assistance.
Provides general reference services that support the teaching, learning, research, public service,
and patient care missions of the University.
Helps users in person or virtually, via walk-in library locations, phone, email, chat and text
messaging.
Conducts [subject-specific] reference training (new and ongoing) for reference providers and
facilitates communications about [subject-specific] resources as needed.
Manages the print and electronic reference collections.
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UC San Diego Library
Position Description
Name:
Rank:
Position Title:
Period Covered:
XX% [Name of home program]
XX% [Name of secondary program]
XX% [Name of additional program, if needed]
Signature of Candidate
Date
Signature of Review Initiator
Date
Signature of Program Director
Date
Signature of Secondary Program Director
Date
Signature of Secondary Program Director
Date
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