The George Washington University Libraries and Academic Innovation (GWLAI) enriches the academic experience of scholars and students and sparks innovation at GW. We enable research and teaching through access to the latest scholarship and rich archival resources, tailored support for researchers at all levels, guidance for faculty who want to explore new teaching methods and technologies in the classroom, and robust support for online education. Through innovative partnerships, dynamic workshops, and team-based approaches to project management and problem solving, GWLAI fosters collaboration and provides leadership across the university to support the shared mission of generating, making accessible, and preserving new knowledge. Having joined the Association of American Universities (AAU) in 2023, GW is at an exciting moment in its history and trajectory, and GWLAI is a key partner in supporting the university’s research and scholarly advancements and promoting discoveries and innovations made by the research community.
GWLAI is seeking a collaborative and service-oriented Data Services Librarian to join the Research and User Services (RUS) department. RUS is a highly collaborative unit where librarians work together to meet student, faculty, and researcher needs across disciplines. The Data Services Librarian will provide research support, instruction, and collection development services focused on data-related fields. The ideal candidate will have expertise or a strong interest in emerging trends in technology, data literacy, and analytical tools used in research. This position will play a vital role in helping students and faculty navigate cross-disciplinary datasets, data visualization tools, and statistical software. GWLAI staff and librarians are champions of open access and support open scholarly communication and publishing practices, including the adoption and creation of open educational resources. We also contribute to the scholarly community through our own research, professional engagement, and service.
- Collaborate with campus units including the Office of the Vice Provost for Research (OVPR), GW Information Technology (GWIT), Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library and more in order to support research data management at GW; help researchers address relevant management issues related to the research data lifecycle, including advising on: the creation of data management plans, the development of preservation and storage plans for research data, selecting and using data repositories for archiving and sharing, and on meeting funding requirements for data integrity and access.
- Develop and provide services to support researchers in the discovery, access, analysis, management, preservation, and publication of data; help meet the needs of data-intensive research and teaching in a wide range of disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and sciences; help GWLAI meet curricular needs by increasing the visibility of available data-related resources and services.
- Help to create and cultivate an institutional culture that values openness across the university by understanding and communicating about issues related to scientific research and scholarly publishing, including workflows, transparency, and reproducibility.
- Deepen our data-related workshop offerings while contributing to a robust curriculum that currently includes topics such as programming in a number of languages and packages; working with data markup and encoding; using APIs and other techniques to retrieve data from online data sources and websites; and data cleaning and manipulation.
- Provide leadership among GWLAI staff to ensure that colleagues are aware of current research about data trends and activities, including available research tools and resources.
- Sustain and expand intellectual partnerships with faculty and students across the university.
- Conduct library instruction for undergraduate and graduate level courses across a range of academic disciplines, including partnering with GW’s first-year University Writing Program .
- Support open data, open educational resources (OERs), and scholarly communication initiatives.
- Help GWLAI grow its support of computational literacy and thinking and contribute to a portfolio of research and data consultations.
- Participate in collaborative collection development, building relationships and supporting faculty and departments through active engagement.
- Demonstrate a desire and ability to learn new skills as well as the potential to work with researchers, librarians, and campus partners to support increased visibility into GW scholarship.
- Contribute to the broader professional community by sharing knowledge in scholarly/professional venues and through service to the University and the profession.
Minimum Qualifications:
- ALA-accredited Master’s degree in library or information science or other advanced degree with relevant experience by date of appointment
- Demonstrated ability to support faculty and student researchers in data management and/or data analysis
- Familiarity with software for statistical, geospatial, qualitative, and/or text analysis, such as SPSS, Stata, SAS, R, Python, ArcGIS, Atlas.ti, NVivo, GIS, or data visualization tools
- Demonstrated collaboration skills, with a commitment to supporting an inclusive research community
- Strong initiative and results-driven approach in previous roles
- Demonstrated excellent oral and written communication skills
- Knowledge of current and emerging trends, issues, and challenges facing researchers
Preferred Qualifications:
- Project management experience or interest in project management, including planning, communication, and assessment
- Experience or coursework in data management
- Familiarity with current research data management best practices
- Knowledge of scholarly publishing trends and current research data management practices