About

Overview

Who May Apply/Clarification From the Agency:

• Current Federal employee with competitive status
• Former Federal employees with reinstatement eligibility
• CTAP/ICTAP eligibles
• Veterans with VEOA or VRA eligibility
• Persons eligible under an OPM interchange agreement or special appointing authority (e.g., Schedule A – Disabled)

Security Clearance Required:

Public Trust - Background Investigation

Appointment Type

Permanent

Appointment Type Details:

Permanent

Marketing Statement:

The National Gallery of Art was conceived and given to the people of the United States by Andrew W. Mellon (1855–1937). Mellon was a financier and art collector from Pittsburgh who came to Washington in 1921 to serve as secretary of the treasury. During his years of public service he came to believe that the United States should have a national art museum equal to those of other great nations.

Summary:

This announcement has an APPLICATION LIMIT of 150 applications. Therefore applicants should apply as soon as possible. If the 150 application limit is not met previously, the job announcement will close at 11:59 pm, on Friday, May 11, 2018. Applicants need to ensure they provide all supporting documentation at the time they apply to the vacancy announcement.

The National Gallery of Art serves the United States in a national role by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and fostering the understanding of works of art at the highest possible museum and scholarly standards. As one of the foremost art reference libraries in the country, the Gallery library collections include more than 375,000 books and bound volumes of periodicals and auction catalogues. The image collections comprise 13 million photographs, slides, negatives, and digital images documenting the history of art.  The incumbent is responsible for managing the collection development, discovery and research use of the library’s ephemera (vertical files), microforms, and special format materials. The incumbent also contributes to the library’s digitization program by creating digital versions of special collections materials.

This position is also being advertised under job announcement NGA-18-24A to all U.S. citizens and nationals under competitive examining procedures. Persons wishing to be considered under both announcements must apply separately to each.

Supervisory Position:

No

Relocation Expenses Reimbursed:

No

Travel Required:

Not Required

Duties

The incumbent:

Maintains the library's special collections, especially vertical files and microforms.

Devises and implements policies and procedures for preservation, bibliographic control, access and security of special collection materials.

Creates bibliographic records and metadata and manages physical processing and labeling of special collection materials. 

Participates in planning for future disposition, storage, and access to collections.

Supervises one student library technician and volunteers.

Prepares digital reproductions and accompanying metadata for special collections materials.

Oversees the functioning, use and maintenance of microform readers and scanning devices; monitors special collections project workflows and use of shared equipment, spaces, and resources; provides instruction to new users and training to fellow library staff on the use of these devices.

Proposes priorities for scanning and cataloging.

Provides support for research, serving curatorial staff, conservators, CASVA fellows, visiting scholars, and the general public; answers reference questions received in person, by telephone, and via e-mail. 

Conducts orientation and instructional sessions to new readers on all library services, with particular emphasis on special collections.

Develops outreach strategies and programs to increase staff and public awareness of the library’s special collections resources.

Performs bibliographic searches in print and electronic resources.

 

 

Qualifications and Evaluations

Requirements:

Your resume serves as the basis for qualification determinations and must highlight your most relevant and significant work experience and education (if applicable) as it relates to this job opportunity. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Your resume must include the dates of all qualifying experience (from month/year to month/year) and the number of hours worked/volunteered per week.

 Physical requirements: The work is generally performed while seated, but it requires occasional bending and stooping, lifting moderately heavy library materials, and standing to operate scanning equipment.  the work involves moving among seven floors of stacks.  Visual acuity is necessary to evaluate and correct the quality of scanned images.

The National Gallery of Art provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities.  If you need reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify us.  The decision on granting reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Key Requirements:

You must be a U.S. citizen to apply for this job.

Subject to a background/suitability investigation.

Designated and/or random drug testing may be required.

Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.

Time-In-Grade requirement must be met by the closing date of announcement.

Education Requirements:

EDUCATION: Are you using education to qualify?

This position have a positive education requirement, you may submit copies of your transcripts or a course listing. You must provide documentation supporting your education claims.

Education must be obtained from an accredited institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

Foreign education must be reviewed by an organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. For special instructions pertaining to foreign education and a list of organizations that can evaluate foreign education, see the Department of Education website.

Evaluations:

The National Gallery of Art uses an application tracking system to evaluate the responses you provide in the applicant assessment questionnaire to determine if you meet the minimum qualification requirements of this position. Then, the HR Office and/or Subject Matter Expert (SME) will conduct a quality review of your application and supporting documentation to determine if your qualifications meet the criteria for referral to the selecting official.

We will also verify whether you are eligible for merit promotion by reviewing your previous Federal employment to ensure you meet Time-in-Grade requirements. If you are eligible to apply to Merit Promotion announcements based on Veteran or other non-competitive statuses, we will verify your supporting documentation prior to referral.

If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses you provided in your online questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation before the vacancy closes, you may be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your evaluation rating may be adjusted accordingly.

Qualifications:

Candidates must posses at least one year of specialized experience, equivalent in responsibility to the federal GS-7 level, maintaining one or more library collections, OR 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education in library science.

Other Relevant Eligibility Criteria:

Candidates must have completed a full academic year of graduate study in library science in an accredited college or university, in addition to completion of all work required for a bachelor's degree;

 OR

Candidates must have completed a total of at least five (5) years of college-level education, training, and experience in librarianship, combined.

Candidates must reflect in their submitted USAJOBS résumés the possession of this specialized experience.  If their résumé does not include such specialized experience, they will be ineligible for this position.

Those applicants who meet the minimum qualification requirements will be evaluated against these factors to determine the best-qualified candidates.  

1. Ability to maintain one or more library collections; knowledge of bibliographic systems and standards; strong knowledge of twentieth century art and artists.

2. Skill in digitizing print resources and preparing descriptive metadata; knowledge of the structure and function of a digital asset management system; familiarity with operating microform readers and scanning devices.

3. Knowledge of the reader services function in a library; effective oral and written communication skills.

Time-in-Grade: Current Federal employees must meet time-in-grade requirements by the closing date of this announcement to receive consideration under merit promotion procedures.


CTAP/ICTAP candidates: To be considered "well qualified" you must meet all of the requirements as described in this section.

You must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

Benefits and Other Info

Benefits:

The Gallery offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid vacation, sick leave, holidays, life insurance, health benefits, and participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System and Thrift Savings Plan (TSP).  Information on Federal benefits is provided at: http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ei61.asp.  If you use public transportation, part of your transportation costs may be subsidized.

Other Information:

The National Gallery of Art fosters a diverse and inclusive workplace and is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

• More than one selection may be made from this vacancy announcement.

• Some positions may require completion of a probationary period of up to 1 (one) year.

• AN EXTERNAL SELECTED CANDIDATE MUST BE FINGERPRINTED AND RECEIVE A BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION, RESULTING IN A SATISFACTORY SUITABILITY DETERMINATION BEFORE BEING HIRED FOR THIS POSITION.

• All males born after December 31st 1959 must abide by laws regarding Selective Service registration. To learn more about this law, visit the Selective Service web page, Who Must Register. If you are not registered and don't have an approved exemption, you will not be eligible for employment with the Federal government.

EEO Policy: https://help.usajobs.gov/index.php/EEO_Policy_Statement

Reasonable Accommodation Policy: https://help.usajobs.gov/index.php/Reasonable_Accommodation_Policy_Statement

Veterans Information: https://help.usajobs.gov/index.php/Veterans_Information

Selective Service Registration: http://www.sss.gov/

 

How to Apply

How to Apply:

To be considered for this position, you must submit your complete application, including all required supporting documentation (see "Required Documentation" section) no later than 11:59pm U.S. Eastern Time on the closing date of this announcement. If you fail to submit a complete application prior to the closing time (regardless of when you started) the application system will not allow you to finish! Requests for extensions will not be granted, so please begin the application process allowing yourself enough time to finish and submit your application before the deadline. Our application system displays a countdown timer in the top-left corner of the screen for your reference.

Steps to submit a complete application:

1. You must have an active USAJOBS account and be logged in.
2. You must have a completed resume associated with your USAJOBS account.
3. Once you are logged in and all of your application materials are ready, click on the 'Apply Online' button to get started.
4. You will be given the option to include your resume, documents, and demographic information from your USAJOBS profile. You will then be transferred to the National Gallery of Art's application tracking system. If you select documents from your USAJOBS account, you MUST complete the download process in a later step or your USAJOBS documentation WILL NOT be transferred! See Step 6.
5. You must respond to all applicant assessment questions, carefully following all instructions provided.
6. You will then be asked to upload additional supporting documentation. If you selected documents from USAJOBS prior to being transferred to our application system (Step 4), you will need to click the "USAJOBS" link to complete the transfer process. These documents ARE NOT automatically transferred! It is ultimately your responsibility to make sure that all required documents are either faxed, uploaded, or transferred from USAJOBS successfully. If you are unsure whether your documents went through, please contact the Agency Contact listed on the announcement BEFORE the vacancy closes.
7. IMPORTANT: In the final step of the application process you will be shown a copy of your resume and all the information you entered during the application process. You must click the 'Finish' button at the bottom of this final page and receive confirmation that your application has been received.If you do not click 'Finish', your application will not be received!

If your resume does not support the responses in your application questionnaire, or if you fail to submit required documentation before the vacancy closes, you may be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your evaluation rating may be adjusted accordingly.

Steps to modify or withdraw your application:

1. Return to USAJOBS and log in to your account.
2. In the "My Account" screen, click "Application Status" in the left-hand column.
3. You will see a table list of all the jobs you've applied to, click on the title of the application you want to modify.
4. If the announcement is still open the button which normally says "Apply Online" will instead say "Edit Application", click that button. (If you wish to withdraw your application from consideration after the closing date, contact the HR Specialist listed on the announcement.)
5. You will be directed back to NGA's application tracking system where you can make changes, or you can click "Withdraw Application" to remove your application from being considered.

NEED HELP?

• If you experience any difficulties with the application process (anything after you have clicked the 'Apply Online' button), please contact the Agency Contact listed on this announcement during normal business hours. If you are receiving any kind of error message, please be ready to provide a screenshot or at a minimum, the error message text and number.
• If you are having trouble with USAJOBS (searching for jobs, account password/profile issues, or Resume Builder help, please visit the USAJOBS Resource Center or e-mail USAJOBS3.0@opm.gov. Regretfully, NGA cannot resolve issues with your USAJOBS account. We regret that we are unable to support any issue with USAJOBS, as this service is maintained by the Office of Personnel Management exclusively.
• If you are experiencing a significant hardship which hinders your ability to apply online please contact the Agency Contact listed on this announcement during normal business hours to discuss your situation. Resumes and/or supporting documentation alone will not be considered without the inclusion of a hard copy application packet. The complete package is due no later than 5:30 PM Eastern Daylight Saving Time on the closing date of this announcement.

 

Required Documents:

Please carefully review the following list to determine what documentation you need to submit.

Some documents may not apply to all applicants. If you are unsure, click the link for each document type to read more.

ALL APPLICANTS: You must submit a resume supporting your specialized experience and responses to the online questionnaire.

• Your resume should list all work experience (paid and unpaid); you should list the full name and address of the each employer.
• Your experience listing should show the start and end dates (include month, day, and year); you must also list the average number of hours per week that you worked.
• Your resume should also include any education and training you have completed (list the program title, subject area, number of hours completed, and completion date).
• For more information about what to include in your resume, please view this USAJOBS Resume Tutorial video on YouTube.
• It is important that your resume is complete and thorough. If any of the above information is not included in your resume, we may not be able to fully credit you for your experience.

If specific educational requirements are indicated for this vacancy: Documentation verifying your educational claims which can include unofficial transcripts or any report listing institution, course title, credits earned and final grade. Please see the Education section for more information.

Current and former Federal employees: Most recent SF-50 (Standard Form 50 - Notice of Personnel Action).

To properly verify status eligibility, your SF-50 must show the following. If you do not submit an appropriate SF-50, we cannot verify your status eligibility!

1. Full position title;
2. appointment type;
3. occupational series;
4. pay plan, grade, and step;
5. tenure code; and
6. service computation date (SCD).

Displaced Federal employees: To be considered CTAP/ICTAP eligible, you must submit documentation verifying your involuntary separation and CTAP/ICTAP status. Please see the OPM Guide to Career Transition for more information.

Veterans: Veteran eligibility documentation (DD-214, VA Letter, Standard Form (SF) 15 as applicable). Please note: If you are a veteran who has not yet been discharged, you may provide a statement of intent to discharge from your agency which will allow you to apply under the (Veterans Opportunity to Work) VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011.

Persons with Disabilities: Individuals with intellectual disabilities, severe physical disabilities, or psychiatric disabilities may apply for appointment through the Schedule A hiring authority. Certified verification of a disability from a licensed medical professional; a licensed vocational rehabilitation specialist; or any Federal, state, or District of Columbia agency or U.S. territory that issues or provides disability benefits is required.

 

Next Steps:

After each step in the recruitment process, your status will be updated in our application tracking system. Once this happens, if you have elected to receive e-mail updates, you will be notified through your USAJOBS registered e-mail address. If you have not elected e-mail updates, you can review your current application status in USAJOBS at any time. Please check that your USAJOBS profile contact information is current and correct each time you apply to a job--this will ensure we are able to contact you as quickly as possible.

In addition to changing your status online, we will send you e-mail notifications at each major step in the process, to include: application received, eligible or not eligible, referred or not referred, selected or not selected.

We expect to make a selection within 30 to 90 days of the closing date of this announcement.