Professional Aide

Position Summary(Basic Job Function)

This is a temporary or an on-call position. Provides professional support. Responsibilities may include general business, science, medical, agricultural or other professional support functions. Term: Temps can work two (2) nine (9) month terms with a week break in service in between and at the end of the second term terminate for three (3) months or switch to an on-call. On-Call allowed to work 1039 hours in any twelve (12) month period.

Unit Position Summary

The Michigan State University Libraries’ Open Educational Resources (OER) Program is seeking an individual to assist with preparation and publication of open textbooks and other course materials. OER course materials reduce students’ educational costs by providing free or low-cost alternatives for expensive textbooks. 

This position will report to the Open Educational Resources Librarian to facilitate library digital and print publishing of OER. They will work independently with faculty and other OER Team members to adapt, edit, and format OER textbooks. 

Key Responsibilities

• Work with the OER Librarian and the OER Accessibility Editor to evaluate manuscripts-in-progress and provide feedback to authors
• Proofread, fact check, and copy edit digital content
• Review manuscripts for structure and formatting consistency 
• Collaborate closely with the OER Accessibility Editor to determine remediation plans
• Coordinate copy-editing and formatting remediation efforts and support authors as they participate in remediation related to grammar, language, punctuation, structure, and formatting

• Facilitate print-on-demand production of OER materials by assigning ISBNs, designing book covers, and verifying print-readiness of Pressbooks’ exported files
• Assign student tasks and provide feedback on student employees’ work
• Other duties as assigned

Work Hours:

• 19 hours per week in the office, to be scheduled between 8:00am-5:00pm Monday-Friday

Desired Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
• Demonstrated ability to work both independently and cooperatively in a team
• One to three years academic editorial publishing experience, preferably editing or copyediting
• Strong communication and grammatical skills in written English, independent of Artificial Intelligence

Desired/Preferred Qualifications:

• Two to five years of copy editing and fact checking experience
• Experience with layout and/or graphic design
• Experience working in the Pressbooks or Wordpress platform
• Experience with open educational resources
• Familiarity with WCAG accessibility rules
• Strong technical abilities and proficiency with Google Workspace, LaTeX formatting, H5P, HTML, and CSS
• Demonstrated success in handling multiple varied, long-term, and competing projects on schedule
• Ability to identify and resolve problems, exercising excellent judgment

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.

Required Application Materials

Please submit a resume and cover letter to be considered. 

Work Hours

ON-CALL

Website

lib.msu.edu