LAC Federal is seeking a highly experienced Cataloger III – Senior Cataloging & Metadata Specialist to provide advanced cataloging, metadata remediation, and technical expertise in support of a major federal research library in the Washington, DC Area. The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical resource responsible for complex original and copy cataloging, foreign-language bibliographic description, serials remediation, and the enhancement of legacy records following SLA's migration to Ex Libris Alma. This position will support the modernization of extensive research collections, including scientific, historical, multilingual, and specialized materials, while ensuring compliance with established cataloging standards and improving bibliographic accuracy and discovery. The ideal candidate possesses exceptional expertise in RDA, MARC 21, OCLC, and Alma; demonstrated foreign-language cataloging proficiency; and the ability to independently resolve challenging bibliographic and metadata issues.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Perform advanced original and copy cataloging of complex monographs, serials, electronic resources, and specialized research materials using RDA, MARC 21, OCLC WorldCat, and established authority-control practices.
- Independently catalog materials in one or more foreign languages, including complex bibliographic description, subject analysis, original-script transcription, romanization, and authority verification.
- Serve as a senior technical resource for complex cataloging questions, unusual bibliographic materials, difficult authority-control issues, and nonstandard descriptive situations.
- Analyze, correct, and enhance legacy bibliographic and holdings records following migration to Ex Libris Alma, including UTF-8 encoding errors, diacritical inconsistencies, MARC 880 linkages, duplicate records, and incorrect bibliographic relationships.
- Perform complex serials cataloging and remediation, including successive-entry cataloging, title changes, mergers, splits, continuations, linking fields, ISSN verification, and holdings accuracy.
- Evaluate and upgrade older bibliographic records to current RDA and MARC 21 practices, ensuring consistency, accurate access points, and improved discovery across print and electronic collections.
- Conduct advanced authority research and metadata enhancement using LCNAF, LCSH, Library of Congress Classification, and other applicable controlled vocabularies and authority resources.
- Support large-scale metadata cleanup initiatives through record analysis, batch editing, normalization, and validation using Alma and approved metadata processing tools.
- Review complex bibliographic records prepared by other catalogers or remote foreign-language specialists, identify quality deficiencies, and recommend corrections to meet institutional standards.
- Collaborate with the Project Manager/Senior Serials Cataloger to develop and refine cataloging procedures, technical specifications, quality assurance standards, and production workflows.
- Support cataloging backlog reduction, inventory reconciliation, withdrawals, and collection maintenance by providing advanced bibliographic verification and resolving difficult record-level discrepancies.
- Contribute technical expertise to metadata modernization initiatives, including BIBFRAME readiness, linked-data practices, persistent identifiers, and improvements to bibliographic data interoperability.
