Digital Library - Canadian Educational Resources Coordinator

Who we are

Formac Lorimer Books and our associated organizations, James Lorimer & Company and Canadian Publishers Hosted Software Solutions, are developing innovative digital resources for school and academic libraries. These resources enable the discovery and use by teachers, instructors, and students of quality Canadian materials not currently available in digital library collections..

We have two digital collections in use, and two that are in the late stages of development. Our school collection, Righting Canada’s Wrongs, is in use in 10 major school boards including the Toronto District School Board and province-wide in New Brunswick. Our post-secondary collection, Canadian CourseReadings, is currently available to all library users at York, Regina, and Kwantlen universities. It offers unlimited access to over 1,000 academic titles published by 28 independent Canadian publishing houses.

The collections in development are the Canadian Forum, the most important Canadian periodical of the 20th century, and Kayak Magazine, a widely known periodical on Canadian history for elementary grade students and teachers.

Working with an independent web developer over the past eight years, we have developed robust, innovative platforms providing access to these collections. These support user discovery of the collections’ content that is difficult or impossible to achieve using the cataloguing conventions and search functionality of the platforms currently used by Canadian university and school libraries. We have also created and delivered delivered high-quality MARC format metadata to bolster access to our collection through academic library searches.

The position

The digital library resources coordinator will move us to the next level in our relationships with the school and university library community. Working with the Lorimer publishing team and the Canadian CourseReadings management team, the coordinator will continue our relationships with school and university libraries across the country. The goal will be to arrive at agreements for use of these resources by additional school boards, departments, and universities, building on the experience of current users who are learning the benefits offered by these resources. The coordinator will bring the priorities and needs of potential users to the editorial and development team, ensuring that our ongoing work on these collections adds to their value for users.

The ideal candidate for this position will have experience at evaluating and participating in the selection of digital resources for an academic or school board library system, implementing new resources, tracking their ongoing functionality and use, and assessing their value for library users. This experience will enable the coordinator to develop strong, successful relationships with current and new users, and will provide valuable insights on the needs and preferences of users to the development and management team at Formac, Lorimer and Canadian Publishers Hosted Software Solutions.

The specific activities that this position involves are:

For the Canadian CourseReadings project:

• Monitoring use and user satisfaction at three current CourseReadings campuses
• Participation in providing information on our platform’s features and contents to course instructors at the three campuses, and at other Canadian universities
• Ongoing liaison with library collections and management contacts at 40+ universities across Canada
• Developing options for use of our collection in consultation with campus digital collections librarians and the project’s management team of book publishers
• Working with regional university library consortia and individual institutions to arrive at terms of use for our platform and collection
• Participation in the technical development of metadata describing the chapters and books in the collection so that it continues to achieve a high ranking for relevance by university library search engines
• Participation in the ongoing development and piloting of the Canadian Forum collection of 25,000 articles, each with Library of Congress subject tags and descriptions, enabling ingestion of the collection through MARC record metadata by university libraries

For the Righting Canada’s Wrongs and Kayak Magazine project:

• Monitoring use and user satisfaction at the 10+ boards and departments currently using the Righting Canada’s Wrongs digital collection and platform
• Participation in a current project to map content to curriculum outcomes for relevant social studies courses on Canadian history from 1867 to the present for BC, Alberta, Ontario, and New Brunswick
• Liaison with key board and department contacts open to considering adoption of the digital platform alongside their current in-class use of titles in the Righting Canada’s Wrong series
• Participation in the preparation of information about the collection and the platform for email distribution to educators across Canada
• Development of material describing the new Kayak digital collection of short articles on a wide range of topics in Canadian history plus lesson plans suitable for grades 3-7, in liaison with the editorial and marketing team at Canada’s History, the publishers of Kayak magazine in print format
• Liaison with key board and department contacts regarding the availability of the Kayak digital collection
• Working with contacts to arrive at terms for use of the collections by individual boards or provincial departments

To be considered for this opportunity, you will bring the following:

Education:

University degree in the social sciences, in courses with strong Canadian content, and a graduate degree in information studies or a related field.

Experience:

Demonstrated experience building digital collections in the school or university library environment, including evaluation of available digital collection options.

Demonstrated administrative and managerial experience. Proven ability to proactively pursue projects, addressing obstacles as they present themselves.

Four years’ recent related library experience, including working with MARC records and good knowledge of Library of Congress subject headings, particularly as these are adapted for use for Canadian resources

Knowledge and skills:

• Effective organizational skills, including the ability to meet deadlines
• Effective communication skills, including the ability to interact with internal and external individuals with tact, diplomacy, and a high level of customer service
• Effective problem-solving skills
• Attention to detail and accuracy
• Intermediate MS Office (Word, Excel)
• Contact management software
• A flexible and creative approach
• Capacity to thrive in an environment of ongoing change and ambiguity, and to nurture that capacity in others.
• Excellent interpersonal, intercultural communication skills; ability to work effectively in both a team-based and self-directed environment.

Salary

The initial salary for this position is $75,000-$80,000.

Benefits

This position includes a benefits package, including extended health care, dental care, long-term disability insurance, and life insurance.

Location

This position is a full-time in-office position, with a 7 ½ hour work day five days weekly. It is located in the King-Spadina area of downtown Toronto in the offices of James Lorimer & Company Ltd. Alternatively, it can be located in the offices of Formac Lorimer Books in central Halifax.

Canadian CourseReadings site: www.canadiancoursereadings.ca

Righting Canada’s Wrongs information: www.rightingcanadaswrongs.ca

This search aligns with our commitment to strategically and proactively promote diversity among our team.

Pay: $75,000.00-$80,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Dental care
• Disability insurance
• Extended health care
• Life insurance
• Vision care

Application question(s):

• Are you located in the GTA or in Halifax (HRM)?
• Have you successfully completed a master's degree in information sciences or a related field?
• Have you minimum four years' experience working in university or school library digital collections administration?

Work Location: In person