Job description

SECTION 1: DESCRIPTION

JOB TITLE: BALLANTYNE COLLECTION CATALOGUER

LOCATION: ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF EDINBURGH, 9 QUEEN STREET, EDINBURGH

REPORTS TO:HEAD OF HERITAGE

HOURS:35 HOURS PER WEEK

CONTRACT:ONE-YEAR FIXED TERM

DATE:FEBRUARY 2018

SECTION 2: JOB PURPOSE

  • Original cataloguing of the rare book material contained in the Ballantyne Collection following the Royal College of Physicians Sibbald Library’s in-house policies and standards.

SECTION 3: ORGANISATION CHART

SECTION 4: DIMENSIONS

  • Producing accurate catalogue records of 3000 Ballantyne Collection items (estimate) bound together in 126 buckram volumes of varying sizes.
  • The College uses the Liberty OPAC.

SECTION 5:MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Producing accurate catalogue records.
  • Contributing to the development of cataloguing policy, resource discovery systems and the interpretation and implementation of professional standards.
  • Contributing to raising awareness of the collection and promoting engagement to scholarly and public audiences, particularly via blogs and social media.
  • Answering specialist reader enquiries and facilitating reader access to uncatalogued Ballantyne material with due consideration given to the security of the material when issued.
  • Identifying material requiring conservation, making recommendations and indicating priorities.
  • Contributing to the formulation and development of cataloguing policy and to the interpretation and implementation of professional cataloguing, archiving, indexing and descriptive standards.
  • Undertaking any related duties as requested by the Librarian.

SECTION 6: PLANNING AND ORGANISING

  • In discussion with the Head of Heritage and the Sibbald Library Cataloguer, the Ballantyne Cataloguer will be responsible for planning and organising their own workload.

SECTION 7:DECISION MAKING

  • Making decisions on cataloguing – support will be available from the Sibbald Library Cataloguer

SECTION 8: INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS

  • Contact with other librarians, archivists and museum curators with responsibility for historic collections across the UK and internationally.
  • Providing support to researchers and academics consulting the collection.

SECTION 9:KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

  • Highly motivated cataloguer with a high level of accuracy
  • Ability of organise own workload and work to challenging deadlines
  • Educated to degree level of equivalent
  • Postgraduate qualification, preferably in librarianship, archives or history of medicine
  • Experience of working with and cataloguing rare books and working with archives
  • Well-developed IT skills
  • Good knowledge and experience of AACR2 standards and MARC format
  • Knowledge and experience of DCRB, ESTC, MeSH & LCSH
  • Some knowledge of Latin, French and German
  • Interest in the history of medicine

SECTION 10: JOB CONTEXTS AND SPECIAL FEATURES

  • The post involves some physical handling and lifting of print and manuscript material
  • The Ballantyne collection contains material on abnormalities of physiological development which might be found upsetting.