Organizational Setting

The Office of Communications (OCC) is responsible for all corporate and internal communication activities of the Organization. It ensures coherence and consistency in FAO’s corporate messaging and communications outputs, as well as enables cost-effectiveness in use of communication-related resources across the Organization.

The Publications Branch (OCCP) is responsible for the production, quality control and dissemination of FAO’s publications and knowledge products. The David Lubin Memorial Library is part of the Publication branch and has the mandate to meet the research needs of FAO staff and constituents of the member countries, providing comprehensive and relevant information resources in all formats, high quality metadata for dissemination and efficient services to support FAO as a knowledge Organization.

Reporting Lines

The Metadata Specialist reports to the Librarian in the Publications and Library Branch (OCCP).

Technical Focus 

Knowledge management, metadata standards, bibliometric analysis, digital repositories.

Tasks and responsibilities

•    Actively support the digitization project in the Library.
•    Evaluate, create and implement metadata for FAO books, journals, series, reports and other publications into the FAO Knowledge Repository with indexing policies and standards, using controlled vocabulary AGROVOC to optimize content classification and discovery.
•    Contribute to projects related to cataloguing batch loads, normalization rules and other bibliographic maintenance into the Integrated Library Management System. Participate in preparing documentation in the application of metadata standards and cataloguing policy and procedures.
•    Enrich and update metadata in the FAO Knowledge Repository, based on the metadata schema for uploading new documents to the existing collections.
•    Create item-level catalogue records, arranging and describing archival and manuscript collections, and developing electronic finding aids according to archival best practices.
•    Provide reference services by searching accessible sources using controlled vocabulary and metadata schemes, and delivering information relevant to specific user requests.
•    Support on various scholarly initiatives like bibliometric analysis, research metrics, controlled vocabularies/metadata, reference management tools.
•    Perform other relevant duties as assigned.

CANDIDATES WILL BE ASSESSED AGAINST THE FOLLOWING

Minimum Requirements

•    University degree in library science, information science or related field.
•    2 years of relevant experience in library work, knowledge management or related area.
•    Working knowledge (level C) of English…

FAO Core Competencies

•    Results Focus
•    Teamwork
•    Communication
•    Building Effective Relationships
•    Knowledge Sharing and Continuous Improvement

Technical/Functional Skills 

•    Extent and relevance of experience in delivery of information and reference services or conduct of library operations
•    Extent and relevance of experience in emerging cataloguing and metadata standards, tools and best practices, such AACR2/RDA, LCC, LCSH, AGROVOC, MARC21, UDC, OCLC WorldCat, and OCLC Connexion
•    Knowledge of EAD, DACS and other archival standards; archival preservation principles and practices; and records management principles and practices.

Desirable Criteria 

•    Experience with an integrated library management system.
•    Experience with digital repositories.
•    Knowledge of archival reference tools and methods.
•    Limited knowledge (level B) of another FAO official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) is considered an asset.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements