Visual Resources Librarian - College of Arts and Law

P osition details

College of Arts and Law
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK
Full time starting salary is normally in the range £22,722 to £24,411. With potential progression once in post to £28,259 a year.
Band 500
Part Time - 0.8 FTE
Closing date: September 1, 2019

Main Duties

To manage the use of ImageBank by staff and students. This will involve:

• Providing an effective enquiry service to current & prospective users of the visual resources database.
• Providing both formal and informal inductions to the use of the visual resources database to groups and to individual users.
• Monitoring current usage patterns and identifying opportunities for improvements to the service. Making recommendations for any proposed changes to the Head of Department and Head of College Educational Technology Team and implementing them once approved.
• Providing on-going support for staff and students when using the database.
• Managing and providing comprehensive training for casual staff who undertake digitization, editing and cataloguing of images to the standards appropriate for 'ImageBank'.

To populate, maintain and enhance the visual resources database and its online platform (ImageBank). ImageBank stores and displays information on works of art as well as ldigital images. Maintaining the system includes:

• Ensuring that the ImageBank database is compliant with the university's copyright license with the Copyright Licensing Agency. This entails researching and entering copyright compliance data in respect of the images scanned from university books, or downloaded from image databases the university subscribes to and deleting those images that do not comply with the university's license.
• Researching and entering data to increase the number of images available digitally. The post holder will need to exercise judgement to prioritise content in a manner consistent with the curricula of the department's programmes and modules, which are constantly being updated.
• Revising and entering the appropriate metadata and keywords so that searches work effectively. The post holder will need to research particular topics in order to write the descriptive and informative captions needed for ImageBank. This will require a good knowledge of some foreign languages.
• Scanning, editing, downloading and uploading digital images from various forms of reproduction. This will require the post holder to exercise judgement on altering, colour blending and cropping images, where use allows, to obtain an optimum quality image and scaling images to the appropriate resolution.
• Auditing the content to ensure relevance to current modules and the university's copyright license.
• Compiling and submitting annually accurate copyright compliance returns.
• Providing training and demonstrations in the use of ImageBank to current and prospective users
• Providing good quality images for examinations, printing out or ordering printouts of the images

To contribute to the project to develop and populate ImageBank, so that images and their data can be entered by a small team of staff, overseen by the College Digital Education team

To provide support for academic staff and students in using the visual resources database for teaching and seminar preparation purposes including:

• Providing advice and guidance to staff and students on using the image collection for Powerpoint presentations and display on the university's learning platform Canvas
• Gathering appropriate images and related information on a particular topic on request.
• Providing advice and guidance to ensure use by staff and students of digital images is compliant with the university's copyright license.

To perform any other duties as reasonably required by the Head of the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies or the College Head of Digital Education for the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music.

Other Duties

• To support the College Head of Digital Education in implementing the new ImageBank
• To actively support the vision, values and strategic objectives of the College
• To support appropriate mechanisms within the ImageBank for achieving continuous improvement in the performance and development of the student experience.
• To provide advice and consultation to others and, where appropriate, to recommend and persuade others to be efficient, effective and economic in their use of support services.
• To represent the College inside the University as required.

Education/qualifications

Essential:

• An interest in Art History as may be evidenced by a degree in History of Art or equivalent

Work and other experience

Essential:

• Knowledge & understanding of the terminology of art, art history and relevant cultural disciplines such as Theology, History, Mythology etc.
• Knowledge & understanding of information provision and library services including cataloguing and archiving systems.
• A high level of initiative and the ability to work independently.Knowledge & understanding of the terminology of art, art history and relevant cultural disciplines such as Theology, History, Mythology etc.
• Knowledge & understanding of information provision and library services including cataloguing and archiving systems.
• A high level of initiative and the ability to work independently.
• Knowledge & understanding of the terminology of art, art history and relevant cultural disciplines such as Theology, History, Mythology etc.
• Knowledge & understanding of information provision and library services including cataloguing and archiving systems.
• A high level of initiative and the ability to work independently.

Desirable:

• Working knowledge of one or more modern foreign languages including: French, German, Italian, Spanish.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential:

• Knowledge of Microsoft Office packages including databases and spreadsheets.
• Knowledge and understanding of databases, and the technology involved in databases (how they function with the appropriate use of data & metadata) including understanding and programming of macros.

We value diversity at The University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community.