KMSS - Stack Attendant, Weeding Project

Result of Service The reorganization of the Library stacks is very important as it provides access to the archived historic resources as well as enabling them to be accessible to the users.

Work Location UNECA, ADDIS ABABA

Expected duration 3 months

Duties and Responsibilities Background

The Library of the Economic Commission of Africa (ECA) was established in 1959 to meet the administrative and research information needs of the Commission and the Region. The mission of the Library, as a central catalyst for organizational effectiveness, has been to continuously enrich and add value to the Commission's knowledge ecosystem, by providing reliable access to high quality resources and services to staff members and other stakeholders, wherever they may be. It has a large physical facility separate from the main ECA buildings, with four floors that house a range of publications for reference and circulation for use by the staff and the public.

In 2012, in order to ensure that the Economic Commission for Africa would be able to effectively support the current dynamic growth and transformation of its member States, it began a reprofiling process, introducing the systems, staffing and structures to enable it achieve the goal of becoming “the premier think tank in Africa”. As one of the four Sections of the Public Information and Knowledge Management Division (PIKMD), the new Knowledge Services Section brings together the “collection” and the “connection” dimensions of knowledge management, and ensures that one benefits the other. Under the “collection” role, the library services unit is designed to act as the “one-stop shop” access point for African knowledge collections.

Since the establishment of the ECA Library, the evaluation and weeding of information resources has not done regularly and in an organized manner and all the old collections are dumped in the stacks in the Library basement in a way that they can‘t be searched, retrieved or made use of. The misplacement of documents as well as disorganized boxes on the floor is also another concern for fire hazards.

A consultant has been recruited to lead the reorganization and weeding of the ECA library stacks and to this end individual contractors working as Information Processing Clerks/Stack Attendants equivalent are required to assist and provide the necessary support for the proposed project.

Scope of work

The Individual Contractors will provide support to the consultant in reviewing, weeding, retaining, reorganizing and rearranging the general and stacks collection in the ECA Library under the Knowledge Services Section of the Commission. The individual contractors will work directly with the consultant and the Chief Librarian under the overall supervision of the Chief of the Knowledge Services Section and will be responsible for the following:

• Assist in categorizing resources into useful and obsolete and propose those that will be merged with the general collection and those obsolete resources that need to be discarded
• Bundle journals and periodicals to facilitate access and retrieval
• Prepare shelf guides and label shelves
• Assist in disposal of discarded materials

• Perform any other assigned duties

  Qualifications/special skills To assist and provide Information Processing Clerks/Stack Attendants equivalent are required the necessary support for the project. A Library Assistant and stack attendant license is required.

  No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.