Clarification from the agency

U.S. citizens and U.S. Nationals; no prior Federal experience is required. This opportunity is also open to Current Chief Counsel Employees under Announcement CCED-21-M69. Please refer to that announcement for details on open period, eligibility, and how to apply.

The following are the duties of this position at the GS-12 level. If you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform all these duties, and will receive training to help you grow in this position.

• Participates with supervisor in developing policies, plans and objectives relating to the research services and the legislative history work of the Library with emphasis on these of online and other automated research systems.
• Provides comprehensive reference, research and advisory services to personnel of the IRS by answering a wide range of comprehensive reference questions relating to law, taxation and legislation that often involves locating information that is not included in various information centers and automated retrival systems to locate and select the appropriate materials, makes analyses as necessary, and prepares answers to reference questions.
• Provides detailed instructions to library clientele on the content, nature and use of Chief Counsel's library resources including how to search manual and automated databases.
• Performs complex literature searches, both manual and automated, which require systematic, comprehensive, and exhaustive searches for legal and non-legal information.
• Administers and monitors the Library’s various contracts, leases, and subscription agreements for electronic database services and equipment, reviewing statements and invoices and resolving billing problems as necessary.
• Produces selected and annotated bibliographies on specific subjects, compiles information packages for Chief Counsel personnel; develops resource directories in both paper and electronic format.
• Designs and performs complex online searches of appropriate databases in areas involving legislative materials and issues.
• Initiates, plans, and develops programs for providing access to the Library’s unique collections of government and legislative documents.
• Plays a pivotal role in development and implementation of automated system for indexing of legislative history materials.
• Responsible for maintaining and developing print and electronic collections of legislative research materials, both current and historical; collection responsibilities include the following subject areas: tax, appropriations, bankruptcy, social security, government contracts, freedom of information and disclosure, federal employee benefits, and public sector labor law.
• Is responsible for monitoring and tracking legislative activity of interest to the Office of Chief Counsel; utilizes both manual and automated services to ensure that legislative tracking functions are comprehensive, timely, and that all current and pending legislation of interest to the agency is properly identified and monitored.
• Provides sophisticated legislative research and reference services to the legal staff of the agency in areas involving tax, appropriations, bankruptcy, social security, government employment, and employee benefits legislation.

Conditions of employment

• Please refer to "Conditions of Employment".
• Click "Print Preview" to review the entire announcement before applying.

Because of its tax-related mission, the Office of Chief Counsel requires fingerprinting, tax verification, and a background security investigation as part of the pre-employment process.

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements by the closing date of this announcement:

Basic Requirements:

A) Completion of 1 full year of graduate study in library science in an accredited college or unversity, in addition to completion of all work required for a bachelor's degree; or

B) A total of at least 5 years of a combination of college level education, training, and experience.  To qualify on this basis, the applicant must establish conclusively the the education, training, and experience provide a knowledge and understanding of the theories, principles, and techniques of professional librarianship; a knowledge of literature resources; and the knowledge and abilities essential for providing effective library and information services. 

In addition to meeting the basic entry qualification requirements, applicants must have directly related education and/or one year of specialized experience in the amounts required for the grade levels below.

You must have one year of specialized experience at a level of difficulty and responsibility equivalent to the grade level in the Federal Service as indicated below:

GS-11: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-9 grade level. Specialized experience for this position includes serving as librarian-in-charge of limited specialized collection on legislative or legal subject matters within a larger library or provides references service where source materials are readily accessible and prepares bibiliographies based on legal user interest profiles.

GS-12: You must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level. Specialized experience for this position includes providing reference, research and advisory services to library users (attorneys, paralegals, and other employees), uses knowledge to procure selected and annotated bibliographies on specific subjects and gives instruction to users on the content, nature and use of library resources.

After meeting basic requirements, you may substitute education for specialized experience as follows:

GS-11: Candidates must possess a doctoral degree (Ph.D. or equivalent) or 3 full years or progressively higher level graduate education in library science OR you may qualify by a combination of experience or education.  Options for qualifying based on a combination will be identified in the online questions.

GS-12: Generally education is not qualifying at the Grade 12.

For Librarians (Legal & Legislative Research): In addition to meeting the qualifications for a librarian, applicants must also possess a specialized knowledge of the legal and legislative reference field as it relates to the position.  As such an applicant’s education or experience must have included or been supplemented by the requirements specified in one of the paragraphs below:

a.    A full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university that meets all academic requirements for a bachelor’s degree that included at least 24 semesters hours in the legal or legislative reference field: or

b.    Having completed at least 24 hours of legal study in an accredited law school for positions primarily concerned with providing library services in law or legislative reference; or

c.     Four years of pertinent experience of such nature and level to provide a knowledge of the basic principles, theories, practices, techniques, terminology and expressions of the legal and legislative reference field; an understanding of the standard methods, procedures, and techniques of research and analysis in these fields; ability to acquire additional information about these fields and related fields; and some knowledge of literature resources in these fields.

Such experience should be equivalent to that which would have been acquired through successful completion of a full 4-year curriculum in an accredited college or university with major study in legal and/or legislative reference, or combination of subjects, as specified in (a) above; or legal training as specified in (b) above; or

d.     Any time equivalent combination of experience as described in (c) with education and described in (a) or (b) above. 

The experience may have been gained in either the public or private sector. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis.

To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week, on your resume.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

Rating: Your application will be evaluated in the following areas: 1) Thorough knowledge of library and information science concepts, principles and practices; 2) Comprehensive knowledge of manual and online information retrieval systems, both bibliographic and full-text systems, especially in the area of legislative tracking and research; 3) Knowledge of tax law and law in general to enable incumbent to understand and correlate information and perform reference functions related to the tax and law fields; 4) Skill in instructing library users in how best to utilize library resources and provide training in end-user systems; and 5) Ability to communicate orally and in writing with an audience composed of legal and non-legal personnel. Category rating will be used to rank and select eligible candidates.  If qualified, you will be assigned to one of three quality level categories, Category A, Category B or Category C depending on your responses to the online questions, regarding your experience, education, and training related to this position. Your rating may be lowered, if your responses to the online questions are not supported by the education and/or experience described in your application.

Veterans' preference is applied after applicants are assessed. Preference-eligibles will be listed at the top of their assigned category and considered before non-preference-eligibles in that category.  Qualified preference-eligibles with a compensable service-connected disability of 10% or more will be listed at the top of the highest category.

Referral:  If you are among the top qualified candidates, your application may be referred to a selecting official for consideration. You may be required to participate in a selection interview. We will not reimburse costs related to the interview such as travel to and from the interview site.

If you are a displaced or surplus Federal employee (eligible for the Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP)/Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP)), you must be assigned to category B or better to be rated as “well qualified" to receive special selection priority.