Vocabulary Specialist/Taxonomist at OCLC, Inc. in Dublin, Ohio

Job Description:

You have a life. We like that about you.

At OCLC, we believe you'll do the best work of your life when you're living the best life possible.

We work hard to build the technology that connects thousands of today's libraries. But we also work hard to make a job at OCLC a meaningful part of a balanced life- not a substitute for one.

The Job Details are as follows:

Discover. Innovate. Collaborate. Inform. A few words we use to describe a career at OCLC.

Technology with a Purpose. OCLC supports thousands of libraries in making information more accessible and more useful to people around the world.  OCLC provides shared technology services, original research and community programs that help libraries meet the ever-evolving needs of their users, institutions and communities.  With office locations around the globe, OCLC employees are dedicated to offering premier services and software to help libraries cut costs while keeping pace with the demands of our information-driven society.

The Vocabulary Specialist is a key contributor in all aspects of vocabulary development and support, including:

• solicits and facilitates community contributions and feedback


• operates as a subject matter expert within OCLC and the community


• analyzes potential issues and proposes solutions


• maps, reviews and maintains relationships between and within vocabularies


• recommends, develops, tests and verifies business functionality


• collaborates with cross-divisional personnel to ensure appropriate technical support and development, and to contribute to strategic decision-making regarding product development, positioning and release, and effective and efficient execution of product plans


• and contributes to preparation of timely product releases and promotion.

The Vocabulary Specialist will ensure that the assigned vocabularies effectively meet the current and future needs of targeted user communities and will support emerging applications and services in a wide variety of environments. Vocabularies include, but are not limited to, FAST, WorldCat Subjects, and Conspectus.

• Develop, manage, and maintain one or more controlled vocabularies. Engage and support the community in a guided, sustainable, collaborative approach to develop and update OCLC controlled vocabularies. Prepare and issue regular updates to community oversight committees, and for distribution in OCLC products and services, to research teams, translation teams, and to other licensees.Review and update documentation as needed.


• Promote specified OCLC services and products widely through appropriate online venues and selected conference presentations and participation. Serve as liaison to user and review groups.


• Collaborate effectively with Product Manager(s) and technical support to ensure appropriate prioritization, implementation, and testing of updates and maintenance to systems and services.


• Organize and facilitate community meetings as needed, including providing/editing proposals for review and feedback.


• Develop and maintain mappings and crosswalks between vocabularies as needed.


• Review licensed translations and publications associated with OCLC controlled vocabularies and serve as liaison to translation advisory groups.

Qualifications:

• Demonstrated knowledge of the development and management of controlled vocabularies and classification schemes.


• At least 2 years’ experience conducting subject analysis for the purposes of indexing or classification.


• Familiarity with one or more classification schemes and classification theory.


• A Master’s in Library Science or equivalent


• Excellent oral and written communications skills with culturally and linguistically diverse audience


• Strong problem solving and leadership abilities, with willingness to take ownership of difficult issues


• Ability to work productively as part of a team and individually with minimal supervision, managing multiple competing priorities


• Competence with basic office computing applications, and quick to learn new technical and communication skills

Desire but not required:

• Subject background in computer science, science, or a technology field; experience designing online implementations of knowledge organization systems


• Graduate degree in academic field


• Reading knowledge of one or more modern foreign language