GIS Librarian

PURPOSE: The GIS Librarian provides GIS-related leadership, vision, and planning to support the instructional, research, scholarship, creative activity, and public service missions of the University of Maine. The position will collaborate closely with faculty, research staff, and library colleagues to improve the discoverability of geospatial data through experimentation and innovative solutions. The successful candidate will be willing to learn and understand the process of data generation for any scientific or geospatial domain, including understanding instrumentation, keeping up-to-date on metadata standards and ontologies, assessing key discoverability parameters, and activating and implementing versioning capabilities. This position is responsible for

• identifying, assessing, and guiding patrons to a wide range of topical state, regional, national, and global GIS datasets and spatial data spanning STEM, humanities, social science, and business disciplines as well as current and historical periods

• creating a geospatial data library for the University of Maine

• organizing existing geospatial data assets according to state-of-the-art metadata standards to enable access and interoperability across the University of Maine flagship campus and the University of Maine System data platforms developing geospatial data cataloging and metadata application guidelines, templates, and services to optimize resource discovery and access; creating and maintaining schemas for geospatial data to support digital scholarship
projects.

• providing project support and consultation for faculty and research staff across the arc of GISbased research projects, from initial project design and data acquisition to analysis, dissemination of results, and storage of data and results in appropriate digital repositories

• organizing and leading instructional workshops to teach GIS skills across the curriculum as well as advising faculty on tailoring GIS instruction and research methods for their undergraduate and graduate teaching

• curation of physical and digital exhibits and related presentations and/or tours, including the communication of research through mapping

• creating and supporting data collections

• advising on acquisition of geospatial data to support research and teaching at UMaine

• leading University of Maine System library colleagues on matters of mutual interest and concern

• metadata creation, description, and transformation for tabular research data,
cartographic/geospatial data, and data sets

• remediating and enriching legacy metadata with a variety of data science methods such as scripting languages, statistical tools, and machine learning techniques.

• managing the conversion of archival and print-based map collections to GIS-usable formats.

• cultivating theory and practice of scientific and geospatial ontologies, taxonomies, and metadata schemas (e.g. Federal Geographic Data Committee, ISO 191, Dublin Core, Library of Congress thesauri)

• collaborating with stakeholders to provide alternative solutions for inclusive metadata (e.g. FAIR / CARE data principles) in response to the strategic priority of inclusion, diversity, belonging, equity, and accessibility (IDBEA).

• engaging directly with state, regional, and national communities (e.g. Open Geoportal) responsible for new trends within cartographic / GIS librarianship, and keeping up with emerging policies from major national and international funding and research support agencies.

• becoming conversant with storage options and an array of platforms used at the University of Maine.

• participating in research, publication, and other professional and scholarly activities

• knowledge of on-premises and off-premises map collections and databases and comparable specialized collections throughout the country to enable access for the University of Maine community

• speedy and accurate retrieval of numeric data and maps in tangible formats and assistance with production of ready-made or customized maps from local and remote sources

• responsible for accurate and knowledgeable scanning of documents and other materials, the creation of GIS projects, effectively communicates with patrons regarding their project requirements.

Other Reasonable Related Duties

• Provides detailed reports and analysis to the Department Head and others as needed or requested.

• Hiring and training classified staff and student interns or employees.

• Represents the department in library, university community, and beyond as needed.

• Participates in maintaining a safe, welcoming and productive environment for all.

• Contributes a positive, creative, and energetic force to the work; demonstrates skills in collaboration, especially working with staff members whose interests and needs differ.

• Work on library, university, state-wide, regional, and national committees and advisory councils.

• Responsible for knowledge of on-premises and off-premises collections, digital resources, and specialized collections throughout the country to enable access for research, instruction, and public service.