Digital Humanities Specialist
100% Academic Professional Position
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Library


Duties and Responsibilities:  The University of Illinois Library conducts a variety of activities in support of digital humanities scholarship, including creation, delivery, curation and preservation of a wide variety of types of digital assets and tools.  Reporting to the Technical Architect for Repositories and Scholarly Communication, the Digital Humanities Specialist will assist with the planning, implementation and ongoing production of these digital collections and scholarly initiatives, with particular emphasis on project design, digitization workflows, and content and delivery systems.  The successful candidate will work across a number of humanities and Special Collections units and will be part of a team of IT personnel that develops and delivers repository and scholarly communication services.  Examples of ongoing projects include a robust newspaper digitization program and a "triple-decker" nineteenth-century American novel digital conversion project, utilizing content management systems such as Olive, Archon, CONTENTdm, and locally developed databases.  In addition, the successful candidate will contribute to the work of the Scholarly Commons in helping to articulate the relationship between new technologies and humanities scholarship to the community of humanists; in advising teaching faculty on the creation of digital objects and providing technical support for use of analytical tools; and in serving as an agent between content providers and the Library's repository.  This position is expected to evolve in tandem with the Library's strategic goals and to experiment with new ways of supporting and enhancing the teaching, research and service missions of the University.  The scope and responsibilities will shift in accordance with priorities established by the AUL for Information Technology Planning and Policy in consultation with IT staff and digital humanities stakeholders.  

As an Academic Professional employee, the Digital Humanities Specialist is expected to use "investigation time" to pursue areas of his or her interest, not directly in support of an immediate program need, in accordance with the University Library's policy on Investigation Time for Academic Professional Employees.  Some investigations that originate in this manner may evolve into regular work assignments or production activities. 


Qualifications: Required:  Bachelor's degree in an Information Technology field, such as Library and Information Science or Computer Science, and two years of experience working in a related field; knowledge of or experience with one or more of the following technologies: XML, XML Schema, XSLT, Dynamic HTML; experience in a library setting working with metadata encoded in one or more of the following schemas: MARC, MODS, METS, EAD, TEI, Dublin Core; experience with common digital image formats such as JPEG, JPEG 2000, TIFF, PNG, and GIF; experience writing and implementing Web scripts such as Perl, PHP, ASP, Ruby, Python, or VB Script; the ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in a team environment; excellent organizational skills and a demonstrable ability to manage multiple priorities; the ability to remain conversant with newly evolving technologies; effective oral and written communication skills.  Preferred:  Master's degree in Computer Science or Library and Information Science or related information technology field; background or degree in a humanities discipline; knowledge of relational database design principles and SQL; experience with newspaper digitization or other humanities digitization program; experience writing web applications using CSS, XSLT or JavaScript; ability to program interactive, database-driven web applications; experience in a library IT unit or working with library-specific applications; experience in planning and implementing programs or services; experience working with digital conversion vendors; knowledge of or experience with digital preservation strategies; experience in writing grant proposals.

Environment: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library is a leader in the delivery of user services, and active programs in information, instructional, access, and scholarly services help the Library to maintain its place at the intellectual heart of the campus. The Library also holds one of the preeminent research collections in the world, encompassing more than 12 million volumes and a total of more than 23 million items. The Library is committed to maintaining the strongest collections and service programs possible, and to engaging in research, development, and scholarly practice - all of which support the University's missions of teaching, research, and public engagement. The Library employs approximately 100 faculty members, and more than 300 academic professionals, staff, and graduate assistants. For more information, see: http://www.library.illinois.edu/ 

The Library consists of more than 30 departmental libraries located across campus, as well as an array of central public, technical, and administrative service units. The Library also encompasses a variety of virtual service points and "embedded librarian" programs.

Salary and Rank: Salary and rank commensurate with credentials and experience. This is full-time academic professional position.

To Apply: https://jobs.illinois.edu/   Attach letter of application and complete resume, including names, addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses of three (3) references. to: Cindy Kelly, Head, Library Human Resources, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801.  For questions, please call: 217-333-8169.

Deadline: In order to ensure full consideration, applications and nominations must be received by 1/3/2011

THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS IS AN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION/EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER