Data Instruction and Outreach Librarian

Environment

The UC Berkeley Library is an internationally renowned research and teaching facility at one of the nation's premier public universities. A highly diverse and intellectually rich environment, Berkeley serves a campus community of 33,070 undergraduate students, 12,812 graduate students, and 1,525 faculty members. The Library comprises 20 campus libraries, including the Doe Library, the Moffitt Library, the Bancroft Library, the C.V. Starr East Asian Library, and numerous subject specialty libraries.

With a collection of more than 12 million volumes and a collections budget of over $15 million, the Library offers extensive resources in all formats and robust services to connect users with the collections and build their research skills.

The Library Data Services Program (LDSP) guides scholars to discover, access, share, and preserve data through dataset acquisition, discovery, and librarian-led instruction and consultations. LDSP works with UC Berkeley librarians and library staff to provide internal professional development and training opportunities to enhance our data management skills and provide data services for our users. LDSP provides data services to all disciplines at UC Berkeley through collaboration with librarians and library staff in the Library’s divisions including Arts and Humanities, Instruction Services, Sciences, and Social Sciences.

The Data Instruction and Outreach Librarian will work in partnership with and under the guidance of the Data Services Librarian in the Library Data Services Program. Librarians and staff in the Library Data Services Program collaborate closely with subject librarians and library staff to provide data support for researchers, faculty, and students who are using data in research, teaching, and learning.

This librarian will actively participate in the Library’s instruction services—providing consultations, teaching workshops, and designing instructional content.

The Data Instruction and Outreach Librarian will develop and maintain a scaffolded approach to data instruction that includes: supporting novice users, including undergraduate students, who may be unaccustomed to working with data; providing instruction and outreach for the library’s licensed datasets and platforms; and collaborating with subject and instruction librarians to teach data literacy, ethics, analysis, and visualization. This position also works to integrate data literacy and data science pedagogical practices into the library’s instructional portfolio, with a special focus on undergraduates.

Since using AI in data analysis workflows is becoming more common, the librarian will help faculty, researchers, and students use licensed AI tools in conjunction with ethical and legal use of library resources, as well as within the broader University context.

The librarian will engage with the Research Data Management Program. This unique program bridges the UC Berkeley Library and Research IT to conduct outreach related to data management, storage, and sharing. UC Berkeley, through entities like the Library, the College of Computing, Data Science, and Society, the D-Lab, the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, and the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences, actively supports the development of research and classroom environments that champion transparency and reproducibility.

The successful incumbent will collaborate with these campus partners and librarians to facilitate open research practices and workflows where possible. UC Berkeley librarians are expected to participate in library-wide planning and governance and work effectively in a shared decision-making environment. Advancement is partially based upon professional contributions beyond the primary assignment; the successful candidate will show evidence or promise of such contributions to the Library, campus, UC System, and profession.

The UC Berkeley Library is committed to supporting and encouraging respect and empathy, and nurturing a culture where all employees thrive. The Library seeks candidates who recognize and appreciate one another’s contributions, expertise, and…