Job Description

The Library and Learning Commons Department at Zayed University seeks an experienced, innovative, and collaborative professional to join the team and fill the role of Scholarly Communications Librarian. The Scholarly Communications Librarian builds cross-departmental partnerships to create a university-wide support network for researchers and students, focusing on increasing the visibility and impact of their academic work. The role involves designing and overseeing programs related to copyright and intellectual property, open-access publishing, digital scholarship, and research metrics while contributing to the library’s broader mission and vision.

Task and Responsibilities

Working collaboratively with all library units, the Office of Research, and other university partners, the Scholarly Communications Librarian provides leadership and coordination for programs that enhance the university's research lifecycle and publication output while promoting the library’s scholarly resources.

The Scholarly Communications Librarian:

· Acts as the lead consultant on matters involving copyright, fair use, and intellectual property for digital and classroom environments;

· Champions open-access by managing initiatives and programs that aim to promote open access and publishing;

· Collaborates on the administration of the university’s institutional repository and on making these works more discoverable.

· Coordinates the collection, submission, and preservation of scholarly outputs

· Increases visibility and accessibility of institutional research.

· Guides researchers in using traditional and alternative metrics to evaluate and demonstrate the influence of their work;

· Provides expert advice on navigating challenges such as predatory publishing, academic integrity, and the impact of AI on research; Administers scholarly communications initiatives, such as maintaining up-to-date guidance materials and online resources, authorship rights, and journal selection.

· Cultivates strong relationships with faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students to advocate for the library’s scholarly resources;

· With a consultative and data-based approach, prepares necessary reports and maintain statistics as required, promotes and implements best practices for the integration of services within the Library and other university units, ensuring that services remain responsive and proactive to the current and future needs of the university user community;

· Stays abreast of trends, best practices, and emerging services among academic and research libraries

Core Functional Accountabilities:

· Strong organizational and leadership skills to supervise, guide, and work with staff and library faculty to build a successful team

· Demonstrated ability to initiate, develop, prioritize, and manage projects or services

· Must be able to communicate effectively with university faculty, staff, students, administrators, and external community stakeholders

· Experience and broader vision of best practices in scholarly communications in higher education and developing initiatives and programs in providing user-centered services in all aspects

· Aptitude for technology; willingness to learn new systems and integrate to enhance resources, services, and workflow

· Extensive expertise in one or more technologies that support the preservation and distribution of academic publications

· Understanding the significance of metadata concerning open access, publishing frameworks, and the impact of scholarship on the academic field

· Excellent written and verbal communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills

· Ability to work with others in a pleasant and open manner

Other Tasks and Responsibilities:

· Serves as liaison librarian to assigned academic programs for the provision of information and instructional services, collection management, subject guides, and engagement with faculty, staff, and students promoting library resources and services;

· Contributes towards course reviews in relation to the availability of course-related resources;

· Provides reference service to faculty, students and staff and serves on the Library Reference Desk and rotates to cover extended hours;

· Trains and works closely with reference technicians in performing reference duties;

· Collaborates with faculty on their research and participates in facilitating workshops for faculty on library resources available to support their teaching and research needs;

· As an academic faculty position, active participation and engagement in scholarship, teaching and service is expected;

· Serves on relevant library teams, councils and university committees;

· Actively participates and demonstrates commitment in professional responsibilities that serve the Library, University, profession, and community;

· Performs related duties and responsibilities as required

Qualifications

The Requirements:

· Master’s degree in Library and Information Studies (MLIS) from an ALA-accredited institution or equivalent;

· Certification or demonstrated expertise in areas such as open access, copyright, research data management, or digital publishing is preferred.

· Minimum 4 years of demonstrated experience as an academic librarian with a wide range of knowledge and skills in key areas such as copyright, intellectual property, creative commons licensing, open access and publishing, repository metadata, collection development, information literacy instructions, reference services, and curriculum support; providing individual and group consultations related to copyright compliance and licensing options.

Competencies:

· Communication - Able to share information in an effective & collaborative manner, both verbally and in writing

· Customer & Service Focused - Demonstrates a spirit of service excellence

· Results & Action Orientation - Demonstrates initiative to generate improvements and foster positive outcomes

· Builds Effective Interpersonal Relationships - Demonstrates interpersonal effectiveness in the workplace

· Knowledge & Technical Competency - Demonstrates proficiency in technical and job knowledge aspects of the position to achieve high level of performance. Able and willing to learn

Application Instructions

Interested applicants are required to upload the following:

• CV.
• Cover letter (maximum two pages).
• Contact details of 3 references (HR will contact referees once the candidate passes the initial interview process). Upload and include for each reference 1) Name, 2) Position, 3) Organization, 4) Email address.
• A scanned copy of your highest degree and transcript
• One representative research publication or another writing sample.

Interview & Selection Process

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an initial interview. Positions will remain open until filled.