CRKN Position: Licensing and Content Development Officer

[Bethany Hedley <bhedley@uottawa.ca>]

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network is seeking a resourceful, flexible
and highly motivated team player to fill a newly-created position as
Licensing and Content Development Officer.

Please forward to any interested individuals.


Canadian Research Knowledge Network
Position Description: Licensing & Content Development Officer

About the Canadian Research Knowledge Network

The Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) is a collaborative
initiative of universities across Canada, aimed at bolstering the national
capacity for research and innovation.  CRKN's goals are to increase the
quantity, breadth and depth of scholarly publications available to the
Canadian academic community, speed the transition to electronic
publication formats, and leverage Canadian universities' buying power and
influence in the international scholarly publishing marketplace.  CRKN
accomplishes these goals through pan-Canadian licensing of electronic
journals and research databases, with online access to the licensed
content provided to over 650,000 members of the academic community.  CRKN
is governed by a national Board of Directors, and administers an annual
budget of over $41 million. CRKN's administrative offices are located at
the University of Ottawa.

LICENSING & CONTENT DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

The CRKN Licensing & Content Development Officer is a resourceful,
flexible and highly motivated team player who is able to build
relationships across multiple organizations and levels, and excel in a
constantly evolving organizational environment.

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Licensing & Content Development
Officer is responsible for co-ordinating CRKN's primary program of
licensing electronic content by working closely with member institutions
and content suppliers. This requires assessing and mediating the needs of
the community and marketplace; actively coordinating content development
and expansion projects; monitoring license performance and resolving
license and access issues.  The Licensing & Content Development Officer is
also responsible for the specification, collection, analysis and
distribution of content usage data.

The Licensing & Content Development Officer is an integral member of a
small management team and plays a key role in the development and
implementation of CRKN staffing, communications, branding, negotiations,
and funding plans. The Licensing & Content Development Officer
participates actively within CRKN committees, especially the Negotiations
Resource Team (NRT), and provides policy-level analysis and
recommendations to the Executive Director, Board and other committees as
appropriate.  The Licensing & Content Development Officer also makes
presentations at Board, committee and members meetings, and represents
CRKN at external conferences as required.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Support CRKN strategy of expanding the provision of electronic resources
by building and maintaining active relationships with publishers, and
ensuring in-depth knowledge of the materials available, to make
recommendations for purchases and to manage new initiatives.

Provide significant contribution to overall CRKN strategic and operations
planning, by working with the Executive Director, committees, (especially
the Negotiations Resource Team), and other staff in negotiations,
evaluation and communications to members and publishers. Construct
financial models to develop and support CRKN's strategy for
licensed-content contract negotiations and renewals.

Assist with content development for CRKN publications and communications
vehicles, and presentations for external funding proposals.

Monitor trends and development in the area of electronic resources and
collections.  Prepare briefs and position papers for CRKN Board and
committees.

Maintain an inventory of licenses and agreements relating to CRKN's
electronic resources.

Work closely and proactively with publishers and appropriate personnel in
CRKN libraries (from systems librarians up to library director level) to
ensure that technical access/support/license performance is satisfactory.  
Co-ordinate resolution between CRKN libraries and publishers; bring
together appropriate parties, chair meetings, arbitrate conflicts and
resolve problems.

Manage transitions and respond to platform/interface changes initiated by
publishers and other parties (e.g. introduction of new servers, new
content and/or new publishers.)  Work in conjunction with Communications
Officer to ensure that CRKN participants are informed of activities in a
timely and effective manner.

Manage the specification, collection, analysis and distribution of usage
data and related performance measurements.  Provide analyses which link
performance measurements with financial expenditures, in order to inform
CRKN licensing strategy planning and contribute to policy formulation.  
Present policy-level recommendations at committee and Board meetings.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications of
education, experience and skills:

A post-secondary degree and background in library science. Minimum of five
(5) years of relevant professional experience coupled with extensive
knowledge and experience in electronic resources development. Awareness of
trends in higher education, online library and scholarly information
services and their use. Knowledge of academic libraries and their users,
and an understanding of library consortia and current trends, issues and
challenges facing libraries in the provision of electronic content
services Familiarity with procurement and project management
methodologies. Knowledge of copyright and licensing issues in a networked
environment. A well developed network of vendor relationships and
experience working with or for a library or university consortium will be
preferred, as would evidence of success in creating and implementing
innovative strategies for negotiating terms and conditions of access to
scholarly publications. Demonstrated strong analytical skills; especially
ability to analyze data and synthesize recommendations. Superior customer
relationship management skills. Ability to maintain effective working
relationships across multiple and diverse organizations, and across levels
within organizations from specialist to executive level. Ability to
influence change and build consensus across a non-hierarchical
environment. Demonstrated ability to adapt to changing environments and
multiple deadlines, and to work well under pressure with discretion, tact
and good judgement. Superior writing and presentation skills. High level
of initiative. Demonstrated ability to recognize and anticipate what needs
to be done. Bilingualism (spoken) Position requires the successful
candidate to live in the Ottawa National Capital Region. Willingness to
travel in Canada and internationally as required.

Salary scale:  Salary commensurate with experience.
Contract period:  This is a contract position for 3 years with expectation 
of renewal.
Expected appointment date: Monday, August 1, 2005

Application process:

Please send letter of application and resume before the submission
deadline of Friday, June 3, 2005 to:

Canadian Research Knowledge Network
Room 236, Morisset Hall
65 University Street
Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5
Attention: Bethany Hedley, CRKN Projects & Communications Officer
Email: <mailto:bhedley@ResearchKnowledge.ca>bhedley@ResearchKnowledge.ca
(quoting "Licensing and Content Development Officer" in the subject line)
Fax: 613-562-5329