Digital Assets Assistant - 1 Fixed Term Post and 2 Full Time Posts Available 

The postholder will support the Digital Assets team in the uploading of digital papers, theses, images and other materials to the University of Birmingham Research Archive (UBIRA) and Research Management System (Pure).Activities include creating and editing metadata for these materials, assessing copyright and confidentiality risks, supporting scanning initiatives and handling requests for restricted items. Postholders will advise and support Postgraduate Research Students in depositing their theses in the University archive. They will quality-check publications metadata created in the Pure system by academic and administrative end-users, check the open access status of documents, and advise researchers on HEFCE’s REF open access policy, as well as on funder open access requirements, copyright and full-text options.

The team also supports Colleges in the use of digitised materials for teaching, and enabling compliance with relevant licences and legislation.

Individual postholders may take responsibility for specialist tasks within the team such as fulfilling Legal Deposit obligations, providing specific support to the digitisation service, or for handling special categories of material in UBIRA.

 

To receive archive copies of research theses submitted by Postgraduate Research Students at the University according to the current Regulations by

• Providing a mediated deposit service to UBIRA and monitoring self-deposited items. This includes checking the eligibility of theses for the repository, making appropriate arrangements for handling potential infringing or sensitive content, completing metadata for theses and ensuring that appropriate access preferences are applied.
• Receiving, checking and adding physical hardbound copies of theses to Library stock by cataloguing them on the library management system.
• Providing first-line support on e-theses for postgraduate researchers.This will include practical guidance on deposit requirements, guidance on metadata and on copyright and confidentiality issues.

 

To be a publications editor in the Pure research management system, supporting Open Access deposit of publications and ensuring consistent metadata for the research publications entered there by academic researchers or administrative staff in Colleges. Tasks include:

• Checking and improving the quality and consistency of metadata imported or supplied by researchers.
• Co-ordinating and advising on full text deposit to ensure compliance with the requirements of research funders and with publishers’ copyright policies and embargoes. Following up eligible versions of the text with the researcher, identifying and resolving problems with material uploaded, and setting completed records and items live.
• Where Open Access publishing fees may be required, forwarding requests to the appropriate person for authorisation.
• Providing first-line telephone and e-mail support to researchers and College research administrators regarding types of works and records accepted in the repositories and how to deposit them.
• Using resource discovery tools to identify, obtain and process content for the repositories, seeking advice and guidance on this as appropriate.
• Providing support to academic staff and the Planning office in helping to ensure publications are compliant with the HEFCE Open Access policy in relation to the next Research Excellence Framework.

 

To support the retrospective digitisation of theses and other materials for the repository by agreeing priority materials, monitoring items in high demand, and assisting the Document Supply team in making theses and other UoB research available to external researchers. Tasks include:

• Monitoring and fulfilling etheses orders received from EThOS or the Document Supply team, and copy requests received via the eTheses Repository and other channels
• Making contact with rights holders to check or seek permissions
• Arranging digitisation via the Digitisation Service, through EThOS or other external contractors and uploading them to the appropriate repositories

 

To support colleagues in the Digitisation Service in relation to:

• Fetching of library stock for scanning
• Provide administrative support where required to help monitor and record items for the accessibility provision work undertaken within digitisation service, and to help ensure that texts provided to students meet their needs and comply with relevant legislation. This can extend to contacting publishers for the provision of accessible texts during busy periods.
• Support the resource list system scanning service which may include checking submitted requests against library holdings and against the terms of the University’s CLA licence.

 

To support other departments of the University and occasional internal Library projects and external projects in depositing working papers, project reports, research data, images, teaching materials and other items into UBIRA. To support Colleges who publish items formally, by allocating ISBNs to printed publications, providing procedural advice to College Administrators, fulfilling Legal Deposit obligations and co-ordinating orders for material.

Participating in the ongoing development of digital assets work through:

• Critical review of procedures and processes, eg suggesting alternative ways of tackling problem areas or inefficiencies.
• Gathering indicative statistics to monitor activities and assess their effectiveness.
• Undertaking such other duties as may be required from time to time in furtherance of the work of Library Services.

 

Person Specification

• Sound knowledge and experience of providing support in a library, information, publishing, research or computer user service.Some of this experience must have been gained in the higher education sector or a relevant research context.
• A sound understanding of the generally accepted interpretations of the fair dealing and library privilege provisions of The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 and subsequent legislation, and experience of providing guidance on the use of copyrighted material.
• An understanding of the theoretical and practical application of metadata to digitised and conventional resources, for indexing and resource discovery purposes.
• The ability to deal with a range of customers (including academic researchers, administrative colleagues, students and external customers) effectively, tactfully and within service guidelines.Experience of communicating verbally and in writing with people whose first language is not English.
• A high level of accuracy and attention to detail in written work and record-keeping.
• An understanding of responsibilities and appropriate actions and safeguards when handling sensitive, confidential and personal data.
• Formal education to degree level OR substantial previous experience of working with publications, metadata, theses or copyright matters.
• Experience of using Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, Access), and e-resources platforms