Los Angeles - University of California - Research Assistant Services Librarian, Law Library

https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF07293

Salary

Rank and Salary: Associate Librarian – Librarian ($66,683 - $113,615)

Close Date

Next review date: Tuesday, Mar 22, 2022 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

POSITION DESCRIPTION

Research Assistant Services Librarian

The UCLA Law Library seeks a Research Assistant (RA) Services Librarian to serve as the assistant head of the Law Library’s RA Program for law faculty and to provide reference and instructional services to law students.

The Law Library’s Research Assistant (RA) Program is the largest program of its kind among all law schools and serves as the preferred means of obtaining research assistants for UCLA Law faculty. The program typically serves 70 ladder faculty members per year and employs 30-40 law students working full-time during the summer and as many as 70 students working part-time during the academic year.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion are core values of the University of California and key components of the University’s commitment to excellence. 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]

Position Duties

Reporting to the Law Library’s RA Program Director, the RA Services Librarian serves as the assistant program head and is responsible for assisting in the daily management of the Library’s RA program for law school faculty.

The RA Services Librarian is responsible for assisting in the interviewing, hiring, training, assignment, and supervision of Library RAs. Library RAs receive intensive training focused on scholarly research, as well as instruction on the production of high-quality work product and on professional communication skills. Training takes place three times per year. The RA Services Librarian’s primary job is to work closely with the Program Director to learn all aspects of running the program and to work closely with Law School faculty and staff to ensure its smooth operation. The RA Services Librarian may also provide in-depth reference and research assistance to the UCLA Law faculty and students. The RA Services may also provide reference desk service, prepare and maintain research guides, and participate in the teaching of legal research courses and workshops throughout the year.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Serve as assistant head of the Research Assistant (RA) Program
• Assist in the interviewing and hiring of the program’s RAs and the matching of the RAs with law faculty
• Assist in the training of the RAs, including the preparation of training materials and the teaching of training sessions
• Provide ongoing support and supervision of a large group of research assistants
• Assist in the daily administration of the RA Program, including the monitoring of RA availability and the tracking of program statistics
• Provide in-depth research assistance to law faculty and students
• Participate in library orientation programs,
• Prepare and maintain research guides,
• Perform reference desk service,
• Teach legal research classes as needed, including Advanced Legal Research, 1L instruction, undergraduate instruction, LLM/MLS training, research refreshers, and other workshops, clinics, and seminars,
• Contribute to the profession and represent the UCLA Law Library in the academic, scholarly, and professional community,
• Serve as a member of the Law Library team and work to further the overall goals of the Law Library

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.

Candidates applying by March 22, 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

The UCLA School of Law has approximately 1,100 law students, 100 full- and part-time faculty, and more than 150 law school staff. The School has a varied and demanding curriculum, highly productive faculty, an extensive clinical and externship program, more than a dozen research centers and programs, and 15 law journals.

The Law Library serves the Law School faculty and students as their basic library and study resource for instruction and research. The Law Library also supplies legal resources for other UCLA faculty, students, and staff. The Law Library is one of the larger professional school libraries on campus and has 18 librarians and 13 staff members. The library offers users an impressive collection that contains more than 600,000 bound volumes, more than 20,000 microform titles, and access to more than 1,000 databases. The day-to-day functions of the Library are divided into five sections, each headed by a Director: Access and Information Services; Bibliographic Services and Collection Management; Empirical Research Group; Research Assistant Program; and Reference and Research Services. The Law Library has a beautiful facility that opened in the fall of 1998.

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.

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.

Visit the Jobs @ UCLA Library website [https://www.library.ucla.edu/about-ucla-library/jobs-ucla-library]

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications

• ALA-accredited Master's Degree in Library or Information Science OR equivalent education and experience (subject expertise combined with professional library education and/or experience).
• J.D. from an ABA-accredited law school
• Minimum two years’ experience working as a law librarian or as a legal practitioner
• Ability to supervise RAs, attorneys, or paralegals.
• Demonstrated knowledge of legal information sources and related technologies
• Demonstrated competence in delivering legal research services and knowledge of legal bibliography and scholarly research
• Firm commitment to law librarianship and to a high level of service for faculty and students in a demanding academic environment
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills
• Ability to work effectively with library colleagues, faculty, students, and other library users and to contribute to making the library hospitable and responsive to the needs of the Law School community
• Ability to teach in large and small group settings, provide individualized instruction, participate in curriculum development, and use a wide range of educational technologies
• Ability to meet the University of California criteria for advancement and promotion of librarians