Social Sciences Data Curation Fellow
Pennsylvania State University
University Park

The Pennsylvania State University Libraries seek a Social Sciences Data
Curation Fellow to collaborate with librarians, technologists, and
researchers, primarily in the social sciences, on building out a program of
services for the lifecycle management of social science research data. The
fellow's work will dovetail with an investigation, launched in summer 2013 by
the University's Information Technology Services (ITS), into curation needs
for restricted data. Penn State has experience handling restricted data, as
evidenced by the Clinical Science and Translational Institute, which works
with primary data that carry high-risk identity disclosure issues, yet fall
under the NIH data sharing mandate. The Libraries also has a significant
university records management program, and in spring 2014 it will house a new
Census Research Data Center. Working with ITS, relevant liaison librarians,
and research institutes in the social sciences, the fellow will contribute to
the overall stewardship of social science research data at Penn State,
including consideration of curation issues for public data sets arising from
restricted data.

  
The fellow's responsibilities will focus on three fundamental, interconnected
areas: 1) investigation of current research data practices to assess curation
needs; 2) collection planning, based on assessment, for local research data
sets, exploring approaches to ensuring data quality and optimizing for access,
use, and reuse of data; and 3) pilot project investigations of curation
processes to inform operationalizing a data curation service. By concentrating
on these three areas, the fellow will contribute to our understanding of the
costs of implementing data curation services for the social sciences at Penn
State. Also central to these efforts will be Penn State's repository service,
ScholarSphere, developed in 2012 as a partnership of the Libraries and ITS. As
a tool for supporting researchers in data management planning, ScholarSphere
is poised for further development as a data repository, especially for data
that otherwise have no institutional, organizational, or domain-specific base:
it offers state-of-the-art preservation technology, flexible access and
permission levels, and robust file versioning capability. The fellow's
contributions will test and help expand ScholarSphere to meet the curation
needs of research data, initially in the social sciences and potentially
extending to data from other disciplines, depending on outcomes from the sets
of activities described.

  
This is a two-year, fixed-term appointment at the rank of assistant librarian.
The Data Curation Services postdoctoral fellow will be based in the Libraries
and expected to work in collaboration with a range of departments, both within
and beyond the Libraries. This position is offered as part
of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) program of
Fellowships in Data Curation for the Sciences and Social Sciences
(http://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/applicants/dc-science).

  
Responsibilities

  * In collaboration with staff from ITS, conduct data interviews with social scientists to assess current research lifecycle practices, document types of research data available, and evaluate needs surrounding long-term management of restricted data;
  * Research various trends and practices at universities for curation of restricted social science research data, with particular attention to the role of institutional repositories;
  * Lead one to two small pilot projects to support operationalizing a data curation service;
  * Participate in consultations, as needed, with social scientists on data management planning;
  * Contribute to design and development of resources, including research guides and workshops, on research data lifecycle practices for faculty, students, and staff;
  * Present on above efforts at national conferences and other relevant venues.
Required Qualifications

  * Ph.D. in the social sciences; examples include anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, or sociology; or in informatics;
  * Ability to organize and develop information resources for workshops and other types of sessions, including consultations;
  * Experience working with large data sets using common analytic tools and/or statistical software packages.
  * Familiarity with institutional repositories and data repositories (in terms of either retrieval of data/content, or deposit of data/content, or both);
  * Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, combined with a facility for working productively with a diverse range of faculty, students, and academic professional staff.
Preferred Qualifications

  * Experience collecting or managing sensitive data for research purposes;
  * Experience working on cross-disciplinary, distributed, collaborative projects.
  
Environment:

The Pennsylvania State University serves as the land grant institution for
Pennsylvania, incorporating a strong outreach mission into its instructional
and research activities. Librarians at Penn State are actively engaged with
faculty and students across all of our 24 campuses, providing research and
instructional services that are enhanced by a program of cutting-edge
development in scholarly publishing, data curation and digital content
management. Ranked among the top ten
research libraries in North America according to the Association of Research
Libraries Expenditure Index, Penn State University Libraries support the
University's 97,000 students and 6,000 faculty system-wide. Located at
University Park and 22 other campus locations throughout the commonwealth, the
Libraries aim to advance the intellectual discovery, information literacy, and
lifelong learning of all faculty, students and patrons.

  
The University Park campus is home to approximately 44,000 students and is set
in the State College metropolitan area, a growing university town located in
central Pennsylvania. Set in a picturesque rural environment, the State
College area offers a vibrant community with outstanding recreation
facilities, a low crime rate, and excellent public schools. The campus is
within a half-day drive to Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York
City, or Pittsburgh. The University Park Airport is served by three major
carriers with flights to Washington, Philadelphia, and Detroit. For more
information please visit http://www.libraries.psu.edu and
http://www.cbicc.org.

  
Salary, Appointment and Rank: This is a two-year fixed term
appointment at the rank of assistant librarian. Salary
commensurate with experience. Excellent fringe benefits include liberal
vacation, comprehensive insurance, state or TIAA/CREF retirement options, and
educational privileges.

  
To Apply:

This position is offered as part of the Council on Library and Information
Resources (CLIR) program of Fellowships in Data Curation for the Sciences and
Social Sciences. Applicants must apply by December 27, 2013
following the instructions found online at
http://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/applicants/dc-
science. Following an initial screening
by CLIR, applications will be forwarded to Penn State University Libraries
which will make the final hiring decisions. Employment will
require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with
University policies.



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