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For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org.

U.S. EPA Opportunity

The EPA Environmental Research and Business Support Program has an immediate opening for a full-time Digital Research Librarian position with the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

What the EPA project is about

EPA's National Center for Environmental Assessment (NCEA) is a leader in the science of human health and ecological risk assessment, a process used to determine how pollutants or other stressors may impact human health and the environment. The center occupies a critical position in EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) between researchers in other parts of ORD and outside of EPA who are generating new findings and data and the regulators in EPA’s program and regional offices who must make regulatory, enforcement, and remedial action decisions.

The Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database provides an easy way to access and influence the scientific literature behind EPA science assessments. The database includes more than 3 million scientific references and data from the peer-reviewed literature used by EPA to develop its regulations for the following: Integrated Science Assessments (ISA) that feed into the NAAQS review, Provisional Peer Reviewed Toxicity Values (PPRTV) that represent human health toxicity values for the Superfund, and the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a database that supports critical agency policymaking for chemical regulation. These assessments supported by HERO characterize the nature and magnitude of health risks to humans and the ecosystem from pollutants and chemicals in the environment.

What you will be doing

As a member of the team, you will provide literature search, data curation, document acquisition, and general project support to the HERO project. Also, you will collaborate with members of a team of librarians and data specialists, and will be trained to support the development and operation of HERO.  The performance and refinement of literature searches on the effects of pollutants will be your dominant task performed, and will require your library science expertise. 

Required skills

• A working knowledge of relational databases; 
• Strong written, oral and electronic communication skills;
• Expertise with complex Boolean literature search queries;

• Experience with major online research databases including Pubmed or Web of Science;
• Detailed recordkeeping skills to document literature search for transparency and reproducibility; and
• Experience working as a part of a high performing team.

Desired Skills

• Experience with Coldfusion, Endnote, SQL, Python, Java or Mongo is strongly desired.

How you will apply your skills

Literature search includes 

• Collaborating with EPA scientists to perform and update literature searches;
• Screening search results on project specific criteria, using SQL database tools;
• Archiving the search process for future reference, including the impact of specific search terms on the full result set; and
• Preparing flow diagrams to communicate screening process to stakeholders and public.

    Data curation includes

• Performing quality control of HERO metadata (entered by third parties and imported directly from bibliographic databases) ensuring consistent quality, formatting and presentation;
•  Resolving duplicated citations into a single HERO record; and
•  Verifying data to ensure correctness and completeness.  

   Document acquisition includes

• Locating and archiving digital copies of original full-text articles relevant to the assessment, using agency provided resources and in accordance with copyright law; and
• Digitizing and storing relevant hard copy articles in the HERO database.

   General project support includes

• Testing new interfaces and tools for HERO;
• Creating new project pages and hierarchies of organizational tags to meet the needs of the scientists working on each project;
• Maintaining a small physical library of HERO resources, including cataloging and labeling books; and
• Providing basic assistance, training and support to agency and contractor users of HERO.

Location: This job will be located EPA’s Research Triangle facility in Research Triangle Park, NC

Salary: Selected applicants will become temporary employees of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $28.99 for hours worked.

Hours: Full time

Travel: No travel will be required

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin September 2019. The initial project is through May 14, 2020, with potential optional periods.

Working conditions: You will be supervised by a mentor who will provide day-to-day direction, as well as coach, advise, counsel and review your work.  The position will involve work in an administrative setting and is not expected to involve exposure to hazardous elements.

For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have Master’s degree in Information Science, Library Science, or a closely related field of study from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 24 month(s).
• Discipline(s):
  • Computer, Information, and Data Sciences (16 )
  • Other Non-Science & Engineering (8 )

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; a recent graduate with a Master’s degree in Information Science, Library Science, or a closely related field of study from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months; a citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America; and not a current employee of EPA ORD or the spouse or child of an EPA ORD employee.