^UKOLN, University of Bath: ^Research Officer (Text Digitisation) ^Job Description

^{1. Purpose}

The post will constitute a major part of UKOLN's contribution to IMPACT (Improving Access to Text), a major research project funded by the European Union as part of the FP7 (Seventh Framework Programme) ICT Work Programme, and will support the project consortium in helping to build capacity on text digitisation in Europe, chiefly through the provision of high-quality documentation and a training programme. More information on the project and its aims can be found at: http://www.impact-project.eu/

^{2. Reporting Structure}

The post holder will be a member of the Research and Development Team and will report to the Research and Development Team Leader.

^{3. Tasks and Responsibilities}

General

· To produce reports and articles for dissemination.

· To promote UKOLN through presentations at conferences and other events, and travel as required to UK and international locations.

· To be a member of relevant internal and external committees and working groups.

· To participate in planning activities to inform the longer-term strategic direction of the organization, in partnership with members of the Management Team and the Director

· To work with UKOLN teams to support the mission and strategic objectives of the organisation.

Specific activities

· To make a significant contribution to the Capacity Building sub-project of IMPACT

· To collaborate with other IMPACT partners on producing a comprehensive range of high-quality learning resources and other documents relating to the large-scale digitisation of textual content. A major part of this post would involve the writing and editing of such documents

· To work in collaboration with other IMPACT partners on the design and delivery a European training programme focused on the large-scale digitisation of text and the concepts and tools being developed by the project

· To contribute to IMPACT project communication, e.g. through e-mail lists or the project sharepoint (Intranet)

· To set up and facilitate ad hoc meetings with IMPACT project partners (and others) when necessary

· To represent UKOLN through active participation in IMPACT project meetings and teleconferences

· To produce regular internal reports as required for the IMPACT project office, sub-project leaders and executive board

· To promote UKOLN (and the IMPACT project) through high quality presentations at external workshops, conferences and other dissemination and outreach opportunities. Also by participation in internal staff development seminars

· To set-up and maintain pages on the UKOLN Web-site that would provide a means of keeping UKOLN staff and stakeholders up-to-date with key IMPACT project progress. To promote the same through news feeds and the UKOLN home page.

· To report internally and externally on progress in all of the above work areas

· To carry out other relevant activities as indicated by the Director

^{4. Contacts outside UKOLN and the University}

IMPACT partner organisations and their representatives. A full list of IMPACT partners is available at: http://www.impact-project.eu/

Project Officers from the European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate-General

Representatives of other EC-funded initiatives as required, e.g. FP7, eContentplus, Europeana, etc.

^{5. Equal Opportunities}

The post holder will carry out their job responsibilities with due regard to the University of Bath’s Equal Opportunities policy.

^{6. Terms and Conditions}

These will be stated in the Contract of Employment.

Person Specification

1. The post

This position provides an excellent opportunity to enhance valuable skills in an interesting environment at the leading edge of digital information developments.

The post holder will work within the Research and Development Team at UKOLN and contribute to IMPACT (Improving Access to Text), an important European project that is setting up a distributed centre of competence for the large-scale digitisation of historical texts. The project is working with some of Europe's leading digitisation centres to help resolve some key challenges that relate to the digitisation of historical texts, including the enhancement of the results of OCR. The project consortium is made up of national library-based digitisation programmes as well as commercial companies and research centres specialising in text digitisation and language technologies. More information on the project and its aims can be found at: http://www.impact-project.eu/

2. Attributes and skills

You will be happy working as part of a distributed team, be able to work independently and prioritise tasks and be confident in dealing with a range of external contacts, specifically the IMPACT project office at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (National Library of the Netherlands) and other consortium members. The post holder will play a key role in the delivery of two work packages within IMPACT's capacity building sub-project. You will, therefore, have an enthusiasm for promoting best practice in digital collection management, as well as a desire to develop your own knowledge of digitisation processes and workflows.

The following attributes and skills will be assessed at application and interview stages of the recruitment process.

Criteria	Essential	Desirable	Assessed by
			A/F	I/T	R
Qualifications:
Educated to degree level	x		x
Experience/Knowledge
Knowledge of digitisation workflows, technologies and concepts	x		x	x
Knowledge of the wider contexts of large-scale text digitisation initiatives	x		x	x
Knowledge of digital library standards relevant to digitisation, e.g. image formats, metadata	x		x	x
Knowledge of community needs for digitisation training and information		x	x	x
Practical digitisation experience in the MLA (museums, libraries, archives) sector		x	x
Experience of working in Higher Education		x	x
Skills:
Good organisational skills	x		x	x
Good inter-personal skills and a proven ability to work in (distributed) teams	x		x	x
Event organisation skills		x	x	x
Attributes:
Ability to write and present ideas well	x		x	x
Ability to work independently and to prioritise, organise, analyse and solve problems effectively	x		x	x
Confidence in dealing with external contacts	x		x	x
Code: A/F – Application form, I/T – Interview/Test, R - References

3. Further details

UKOLN is a centre of expertise in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information, education and cultural heritage communities by:

· Influencing policy and informing practice

· Promoting community-building and consensus-making by actively raising awareness

· Advancing knowledge through research and development

· Building innovative systems and services based on Web technologies

· Acting as an agent for knowledge transfer

UKOLN is based at the University of Bath, directed by Dr Liz Lyon and currently has a staff of twenty-nine. UKOLN is funded by the Museums , Libraries and Archives Council (MLA); the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the funding bodies for higher and further education in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland; as well as by project funding from the JISC, EPSRC and the European Community. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based. More details on UKOLN activities can be found on its website (www.ukoln.ac.uk/)

UKOLN aims to inform practice and influence policy in the areas of: digital libraries, metadata and resource discovery, distributed library and information systems, bibliographic management, and web technologies. It provides network information services, including the Ariadne magazine, and runs workshops and conferences.