Gallery jobs in Italy

Position Details

Academic Services

Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK

Full time starting salary is normally in the range £29,647 to £31,460, with potential progression once in post to £35,388

Grade: 5

Full Time, Permanent

Closing date: 21st April 2025

2 positions available

Our offer to you

People are at the heart of what we are and do.

The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.

We are committed to helping the people who work here to develop through our sector-leading Birmingham Professional programme which provides all professional services staff with development opportunities and the encouragement to reach their full potential. With almost 5,000 professional services jobs in a wide range of functions in Edgbaston and in our campus in Dubai, there are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to develop your career at the University.

We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.

Supporting our people to achieve a healthy work/life balance is important both to our employees and to the success of the University and, depending on the role, we offer a variety of flexible working arrangements. We therefore welcome discussions on all forms of flexible working. In addition, you will receive a generous package of benefits including 40 days paid holiday a year, one paid day a year for volunteering, occupational sick pay, and a pension scheme. We also have three high-quality subsidised day nurseries.

The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.

Background

Repository Collection Specialists are based within Scholarly Communications Services (SCS) which in turn is part of the Collections, Discovery and Research Communications division of Library and Learning Resources. Scholarly Communications Services support the long-term accessibility and maximal discovery of University of Birmingham Research outputs through the active promotion and application of Open Research and Digital Preservation practices.

We are seeking two enthusiastic and diligent candidates to expand our Scholarly Communications Services team. Repository Collections Specialists provide expert support for the deposit, description and open access of a wide variety of University of Birmingham research outputs into the University’s repository infrastructure.

Role Summary

You will provide specialist support for the deposit, description and open access of a wide variety of University of Birmingham research outputs into the University’s repository infrastructure. You will create and edit metadata in line with documented repository standards. You will apply your in-depth experience and knowledge of scholarly communications and open research, in combination with your ability to interpret funder and publisher policies, to determine whether each output can be made open access, and if so under what licensing and embargo conditions. You will be responsible for assigning and in some cases generating appropriate persistent identifiers, such as Funder IDs and Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs). Your working knowledge of copyright legislation and data protection will be used to identify any copyright or sensitive information risks for individual outputs. You will support researchers to resolve those risks before outputs are shared via the repositories.

The quality and timeliness of the work you carry out will determine whether research outputs comply with funder requirements and are admissible to the Research Excellence Framework (REF). You will, therefore, need to ensure accurate and professional work is delivered to meet targets and deadlines.

You will be expected to resolve complex enquiries from staff and PGR students. This regularly includes queries about document versioning, publishing norms and open access policy. You will need to summarise and present specialist concepts in lay terms to achieve this.

As the Open Research landscape continues to evolve rapidly, you will be expected to stay up to date with changes. That knowledge will be used to both provide ongoing support, but also to maintain effective and efficient workflows, working with the wider SCS team to implement amendments.

You will also support colleagues within Library Services (LS) with the digitisation of hardbound theses and processes requests to view or access deposited materials from both internal and external customers.

You will promote equality and value diversity including actively acting as a role model and fostering a non-discriminatory working culture, and actively applying internal processes in a fair and equal way.

Main Duties

Managing published research outputs in Pure (approx. 50%)

As an editor of research outputs in the PURE research information system, support the discovery of, and open access to, University of Birmingham research in line with prevailing policy by:

• Identifying new University of Birmingham research outputs via mediated and direct deposit into Pure, as well as via integrated 3rd party services.
• Using knowledge of open access options, publishing conventions, copyright legislation and Creative Commons (CC) licensing, within the context of prevailing funder and publisher policies, to decide on the most appropriate mechanism for making each output open access and applying any necessary embargo period.
• Using knowledge of Dublin Core (DC) and Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) metadata standards to catalogue research outputs and maximise their discovery via our repository infrastructure.
• Carefully interpreting publisher policies and licensing agreements to identify, assess and review appropriate full text versions of research papers, monographs, conference papers and book chapters; where necessary liaising directly with researchers to obtain the correct version.
• Supporting academic service users, via direct and mediated deposit to create new records in PURE which meet the standards required by REF and other funders.
• Balancing conflicting needs to maintain standards and deliver accurate repository records across all research outputs, with the specific time-bound requirements of outputs in scope of REF and other funder policies.
• Providing telephone, e-mail, online chat and video call support to academic and administrative users of Pure, including advising on applicable open access requirements and potential consequences of non-compliance. This may involve escalating intractable issues within the team and more broadly to colleagues in the Research Strategy and Services Division.
• Providing support and advocacy for our services via face-to-face drop-in sessions for researchers.
• Supporting data quality and data cleansing activity to minimise the proliferation of duplicate records and poor-quality master data in Pure.
• Supporting colleagues in RSSD with collation of outputs and fine metadata checking for the University’s REF submission.

Thesis deposit and access (approx. 25%)

To receive and process electronic theses submitted by PGR students at the University of Birmingham according to current graduation requirements. Tasks include:

• Reviewing, correcting and validating repository records for student deposits in eTheses.
• Using knowledge of copyright and data protection legislation to identify and resolve potential issues with deposited theses.
• Using knowledge of funder policies and publisher norms to advise on whether one of several documented restricted access options may be appropriate.
• Supporting Library Services colleagues with cataloguing and day-to-day management of hardbound theses, and ensuring hardbound theses are restricted or made accessible based upon the author access choice by transporting theses to designated locations.
• Providing first-line telephone and e-mail support to PGR students with the submission of an electronic thesis via the eTheses repository advising on document deposit, access and licensing options and basic copyright and data protection requirements. Providing face-to-face support to students regarding thesis deposit both at the Library Desk and at pre-arranged PGR facing events.
• Support the Repository and Digital Preservation Librarian by creating and processing preservation copies and preservation metadata for theses, including ingest into the Library’s forthcoming Digital Preservation platform.
• Engage with a continual service improvement approach to the Library’s thesis service, identifying and proposing potential improvements and both supporting and leading on their implementation when required.

Thesis digitisation (approx. 5%)

To manage digitisation and access requests for theses from the British Library EThOS service, alumni and other library users. Tasks include:

• Recording, processing and completing requests to access closed electronic theses received via EThOS, or directly via ETheses.
• Managing requests from EThOS and Alumni, to digitise hardcopy theses.
• Collaborating with colleagues in Digitisation Services and Library Customer Services to fulfil requests.
• Contacting rights holders to seek permission to digitise hardbound theses and deposit the electronic version to the eTheses repository.

Other research outputs (approx. 20%)

To support the publication of University of Birmingham published reports and journals and the deposit of working papers, project reports, research data, images, teaching materials and other scholarly communications into our repositories. Tasks include:

• Using knowledge of standard (e.g. ISBN) and persistent (e.g. DOI) identifiers to advise researchers on their options for maximising the discoverability and long-term accessibility of locally published works.
• Allocating ISBNs to printed publications, providing procedural advice to College Administrators, fulfilling Legal Deposit obligations and co-ordinating requests for material.
• Minting Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for University of Birmingham published works.
• Managing the deposit of working papers, journal articles, images, research data and other unpublished research outputs into our ePapers and eData repositories.

To participate in the ongoing development of Scholarly Communications Services as part of a process of continual service improvement and in response to external factors. Tasks include:

• Maintaining awareness of the rapidly evolving open research policy environment.
• Engaging in regular process review activity, taking account of user feedback, policy, systems and external environment updates to identify and propose potential improvements. Both supporting and leading on the implementation of process improvements.
• Collating and presenting evidence to support change and assess service effectiveness.
• Gathering indicative statistics for inclusion in annual reports to senior University Committees.
• Taking an active role in the induction and training of new team members by providing coaching and direct support.
• Supporting the wider understanding of open access and the work the SCS team do, amongst Library colleagues, including organising workshops and creating awareness raising materials.
• Undertaking other duties as may be required for the development of Scholarly Communications Services and Library Services.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

• Educated to A-level or a relevant vocational or professional qualification. Alternatively, substantial previous experience working with scholarly communications, publishing, metadata or library systems.
• GCSE to a minimum of grade C/4 in English and Mathematics (or equivalent qualifications).
• Practical experience working in a library, publishing or research support position and ideally directly with research outputs and/or copyright matters.
• Excellent understanding of open access and other open research practices as they apply to the modern research publishing landscape.

You will be:

• Experienced communicating with, supporting and advising a wide range of service users, including those whose first language is not English, in a professional and tactful manner following service guidelines. This will ideally have included supporting staff and/or students in a HE environment.
• Able to explain and summarise complex or specialist concepts to a non-specialist audience.

In addition to the above, you should be able to demonstrate and/or evidence the following:

• Experience creating, updating and checking accuracy of metadata for indexing and discovery purposes, ideally in an open repository environment.
• Experience of handling sensitive, confidential, and personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and subsequent legislation.
• Good IT skills including experience of using core components of the Microsoft 365 suite.
• A high level of accuracy and attention to detail in written work and record-keeping.
• Strong organisation skills and the ability to prioritise and schedule workload in the face of conflicting demands.
• Sound awareness of the key steps involved in publishing scholarly journal articles, conference papers and longform outputs, including an understanding of options available for making those outputs open access and the interplay of funder mandates and publisher policies when doing so.
• Familiarity with the REF and Plan S.
• Ability to work in a team environment, forming constructive working relationships both within and beyond the direct team.
• An understanding of protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act 2010 and how to perform day-to-day activities in compliance with this act.

Dimensions

You will not oversee a team or own a budget, but this role will be required to use specialist skills to deal with complex materials. You will support the long term public discovery of, and access to, research outputs created by approximately 3000 post-graduate students and over 3000 research active academic staff.

Planning and Organising

The role needs to balance the demands for accurate and professional work with meeting targets and deadlines. It underpins specific requirements placed on researchers by funders and is fundamental to the University meeting the minimum open access thresholds required by the REF.

Problem Solving and decision making

You will have the autonomy to decide on appropriate classification, and open access treatment for all repository deposits in deposit queues and will be expected to resolve all but the most intractable of enquiries about our repository service. You will be able to decide how to resolve classification and cataloguing anomalies. You will be allocated to specific repository or enquiry queues by your line manager depending on incoming workload, but will be required to manage your own time and prioritise incoming records within each area. You will be able to proactively identify and recommend improvements.

You will need to consult others on any proposed changes to processes and procedures.

Internal and External relationships

You will work constructively with other team members, liaising regularly with the Team Leader, the Open Access, Research Data and Repository and Digital Preservation Librarians regarding intractable issues and potential service improvements. You will foster relationships with a wide range of Libraries and Learning Resources staff to raise awareness of open access and help answer relevant queries that come directly to other teams.

You will work professionally to provide support to the services key internal stakeholders which consist of research staff, research students and College administrators. You will also liaise directly with colleagues in other Professional Services areas, particularly Registry and the Research Strategy and Services Division.

To maintain up to date knowledge of open access, you will be required to participate in external professional networks, and you will be required to directly liaise with colleagues in repository teams in other Universities to resolve issues with co-authored research outputs.

Informal enquiries to Michael Dainton, email: m.dainton@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life. We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations. We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed. We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy. You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyoneon our website.