Cataloguer

United Nations - UN | Consultant | United Nations Office at Geneva
Closing: 01 Feb 2026 9 days remaining
Location: Geneva, Switzerland

Overview

Create full bibliographic records for physical books received by the UN Library Geneva and revise the draft Library cataloguing manual.


Tasks Summary
  • Create full bibliographic records for physical books received by the UN Library Geneva as gifts from various stakeholders to make them discoverable in the Library catalogue (Global Search).
  • Cataloguing priority has to be given to a collection of 138 books in Chinese received in 2025.
  • Other gifted books to be catalogued are in different world languages, including Arabic and Russian.
  • Book topics are related to United Nations activities (international law, human rights, development and economics, history of international relations, trade, statistics, shipping etc.).
  • Revise the draft Library cataloguing manual and provide suggestions for its improvement.
  • Provide instruction, training and advice to Library colleagues on bibliographic records creation to make a collection of legacy pamphlets discoverable in Global Search.
  • Catalogues and classifies monographs, UN publications and other resources using AACR2, MARC 21, UDC, Cutter tables and UNBIS Thesaurus.
  • Creates, updates, and maintains bibliographic and authority records to support the discoverability of the materials.
  • Applies UN Library cataloguing policies and ensures alignment with international best practices.
  • Ensures accuracy, consistency, and quality of metadata by reviewing and validating records imported from external sources.
  • Maintains authority control for names, subjects, geographic areas, and corporate bodies, following UNBIS Thesaurus.
  • Performs data cleanup, record reconciliation, and metadata standardization.
  • Enhances user access to relevant book collections, UN publications, and historical resources.
  • Provides advice to establish a comprehensive, updated and easy-to use cataloguing manual.
  • Provides training in basic cataloguing and metadata creation to colleagues, in the framework of a retrospective cataloguing project.
  • Contributes to metadata strategies for digital preservation, institutional repositories, linked data initiatives, and knowledge dissemination platforms.

Experience Requirements

At least 5 years of relevant cataloguing or metadata experience, preferably in an international, academic, or institutional library is required. Experience with multilingual cataloguing, UN publications or cataloguing in an international environment is desirable.


Qualification Requirements

Advanced university degree (Master’s) in Library and Information Science, Information Management, Archival Science, or a related field.

Other Details

Languages Required: Fluency in English and French, both oral and written, is required.

Languages Preferred: Knowledge of other UN languages, in particular Arabic, Chinese and Russian is an asset.

Contract Duration: 3 months, renewable

Work Modality: hybrid mode, alternating work from home and presence on site when required

Apply on Organization Website


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