Senior Documentation Technician

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Position Summary:

Reporting to the Head Librarian of the Osler Library of the History of Medicine, the Senior Documentation Technician fills many roles. The general areas of activity are administration, collections management, reference, outreach, and supervision of students. The Senior Documentation Technician supports the use and acquisition of library materials. They organize, distribute, and verify the work of others, and participate in training new employees. They demonstrate a strong grasp of the history of medicine while sharing detailed information and providing reference services. The Senior Documentation Technician acts as a resource person and resolves problems. They perform duties related to interlibrary loans, network loans, lending, and hold requests; they search for bibliographic records, place orders, participate in collection maintenance and internal records management. They take initiative in the development and implementation of projects, work methods, and procedures, including preservation.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Performs duties relating to the selection and acquisition of library materials: searches for bibliographic records, identifies appropriate fund for purchases, places orders with Collections Services; monitors progress of acquisitions.

• Processes rare material: checks in new items, double-checks records for errors, makes appropriate item notes, assigns section numbers; checks donation lists against existing holdings; performs preliminary sorting of gifts according to their suitability for the collection; assists in collection surveys.

• Organizes daily operation of the circulation desk: organizes, distributes and verifies the work of others, and participates in their training; sets desk schedules, trains staff; orders supplies (office and archival).

• Performs duties related to reference service: assesses user needs and assists with their research; utilizes catalogues, databases and other reference works in order to respond to reference questions; retrieves items off a pull list; answers questions and refers complex inquiries to the Head Librarian.

• Provides information, individually or in groups, concerning the organization of the library and its operations, and explains the use of library resources; uses strong knowledge of history of medicine to make informed decisions when assisting patrons, directing them towards subject-specific databases and related resources.

• Acts as resource person and performs duties related to internal, network and interlibrary loans; ensures compliance with library policies, procedures and regulations; prepares, records and processes accounting transactions and ensures that allocation to account is accurate; verifies and analyses, reconciles and updates accounts; investigates and follows up on discrepancies and other accounting matters.

• Monitors the library: makes sure patrons do not consume food or drink; monitors public and locked stacks for insects and vermin.

• Performs bibliographic searching and verification using a variety of sources; offers patrons basic guidance on access, e.g., how to use the catalogue, basic database searching.

• Participates in collection maintenance: examines and sorts damaged material for withdrawal, replacement or repair; performs preliminary sorting of gifts according to their suitability for the collection; assists in collection surveys and in promoting the collection.

• Performs basic conservation activities: creates protective coverings for fragile materials; examines and sorts damaged material for replacement or repair; confirms that climate readings remain within an ideal range and maintains records of climate readings; keeps records of climate control readings.

• Composes correspondence, completes forms, and processes documents related to activities of the unit: drafts publication permissions, loan agreements, and deed of gift forms; liaises with Friends of the Osler Library; facilitates communication with the Board of Curators.

• Verifies, updates and maintains files, databases and records related to activities of the unit; compiles statistics for the annual report; manages databases of contacts for cir