Engagement Librarian

Academic Engagement & Innovation

Location:  Highfield Campus
Salary:   £34,980 to £42,978 per annum pro rata
Part Time Fixed Term (31/01/2025)
Closing Date:  Wednesday 11 October 2023
Interview Date:   To be confirmed
Reference:  2440123KX

University of Southampton Library Service is seeking to appoint a dynamic, enthusiastic, and proactive Engagement Librarian specialising in Research Data Management (RDM) to work with our small friendly team. This is a fixed-term, part-time appointment (0.6FTE/24 hours per week) until 31^st January 2025.

The role 

You will engage with staff and students to promote and develop best practice RDM. You will be part of a small team responsible for the University’s data catalogue and data repository, and for planning, outreach, and service development to address the data life cycle needs of researchers in line with the University’s commitment to open research and the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable) principles. You will work as part of an active community of researchers (staff and students) and professional services staff across the University who are passionate about open research, and you will work closely with RDM stakeholders. 

In particular, the post-holder will:

• advise and support researchers in drafting data management plans in line with funder requirements, privacy and ethics regulations, and intellectual property rights considerations.
• mediate the deposition of research data into the institutional repository, following workflows and evaluating datasets, liaising with academics to ensure that datasets are suitable for the repository.
• design and run training events tailored to researchers’ needs, and inspire researchers to participate at both disciplinary and university level,
• contribute to the development of the research data services at Southampton, and liaise with colleagues nationally and internationally to exchange best practice.

About you

We are seeking candidates with excellent communication and interpersonal skills, experience, or knowledge of delivering research data management infrastructure, and an understanding of data management and Open Research issues, including preservation issues, technical challenges and funder/professional body standards and requirements. We are particularly keen to receive applications from candidates with a good knowledge and hands on experience in managing and making research data and software reproducible.

In addition to your main work within the Research Data team, you will have a secondary role in our systematic reviews team. No previous knowledge of this secondary theme is required; it can be a developmental opportunity.  You will also be the main point of contact for Library services for some departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

What we can offer you

As a university we aim to create an environment where everyone can thrive and are proactive in fostering a culture of inclusion, respect and equality of opportunity. We believe that we can only truly meet our objectives if we are reflective of society, so we are passionate about creating a working environment in which you are free to bring your whole self to work. 

With a generous holiday allowance as well as additional university closure days we are committed to supporting our staff and students and open to a flexible working approach.

If you wish to discuss the role in more detail, please email, please contact Isobel Stark, Head of Research Data & Intellectual Property at i.a.stark@soton.ac.uk