National Digital Stewardship Residency Host Projects

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Host Projects

Below are excerpts of the 2016-2017 host institution proposals. Each proposal outlines a host institutions' goals for their resident, and provides more detail about project.

Click on the titles to see the full proposals in PDF format. Applying residents should read all five proposals, then choose their top three for their applications. Applications should be submitted through the USAJOBS vacancy announcement available from here.

Association of Research Libraries

Bringing life to research objects: managing the digital lifecycle of research from creation to stewardship through the Open Science Framework and SHARE

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL), in partnership with the George Washington University (GWU) Libraries and the Center for Open Science (COS), seeks an enthusiastic, technically oriented resident with excellent outreach and communication skills. The resident will prototype the process of linking the output from a university research unit to a library digital repository through the Open Science Framework—an open source tool that integrates and supports research workflow. Working with senior colleagues at ARL, a data librarian at GWU Libraries who works with the SHARE project, and staff at COS, the resident will participate in the full life cycle of digital stewardship, including metadata creation and other documentation, data management planning, and access and preservation through the institutional repository. The resident will also participate in selecting the research unit at the outset of the appointment.
This yearlong residency will include technical curation training; visits to the Center for Open Science in Charlottesville, Virginia; hands-on work with researchers and librarians at GWU; and deep exposure to open source, open science tools. Upon completion of the residency, the candidate will have created documentation that other research units and libraries can replicate, thereby contributing to the advancement of the research library role in research data management and to digital stewardship in the academy. The successful resident will have interest and/or experience in library repository platforms, experience or strong interest in programming, and excellent communication skills.

Food and Drug Administration, Office of Science & Engineering Laboratories, Center for Devices & Radiological Health

Enabling Open Science through the Center for Devices & Radiological Health (CDRH) Science Data Catalog

A residency is available with the Innovation & Technology Solutions (ITS) Team in the Office of Science & Engineering Laboratories (OSEL) at the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Seeking a high-energy, high-bandwidth Resident to join the “CDRH Science Data Catalogue Pilot,” a joint project between OSEL, the CDRH Office of the Center Director, the FDA Office of the Chief Scientist, and the FDA Library. Join a dynamic team of FDA Library & Information Science professionals and our research program evaluation collaborators to stand-up a pilot instance of a searchable digital catalogue for datasets, software code, computational models, images, and more as part of federally mandated public access efforts. This position is located at the White Oak Campus in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Work Needed: We are seeking an enthusiastic individual who will excel working on a fast-paced, high profile pilot. The Residency offers the opportunity to research and apply digital curation, research data management, and project management techniques, and gain first-hand experience with product development. The Resident will be responsible for leading Catalogue content acquisition and curation, as well as refining the metadata schema and taxonomy. They will also assist with pilot planning and deployment.
Qualifications: Master’s Library & Information Science, Information Management, or related field; strong organization skills; strong communication skills; strong ability to cooperate and work collaboratively towards solutions; possess a high degree of flexibility and adaptability; self-starter personality and ability to work independently with a high level of initiative; strong proficiency and comfort with technology. Preferred qualifications include an interest in eScience and non-traditional LIS environments.

Georgetown University Library

Bring it All Home: Building Digital Preservation Processes for Digital Preservation Platforms

Become an integral part of the Georgetown University Library’s new comprehensive digital preservation program. Georgetown University Library invites applications from dynamic applicants who are interested in co-leading the development, implementation and enhancement of existing workflows for digital asset management into digital preservation environments. Working in a fun, dynamic, and hands-on research and operational environment, the resident will work with a team of librarians and library technologists in developing project guidelines, documentation and workflows that will be open source for the entire library community to use.
The resident will be introduced to different preservation platforms and will be involved with the digital preservation team and Library Technology team to develop digital preservation processes and resulting digital preservation operations. They will also be involved in all stages of the process of inventory, selection, curation, preparation and ingest of files of all formats, and creation of a public online presentation of documentation and other materials that would provide its historical context.
The Georgetown University Library Information Technology team offers a flexible work environment, great work-life balance (that means you can take real days off without checking emails), opportunities to collaborate on university and library-wide projects, and opportunities to share projects and expertise with the academic library community. This position will provide the successful candidate with an excellent opportunity to develop and deepen skills in both digital preservation and project management. There is room in the position for a healthy range of tasks and roles. The position also offers room to initiate projects of interest. The Library also supports professional development through webinars, workshop/conference travel and other local opportunities.

John Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries

Large-Scale Digital Stewardship: Preserving Johns Hopkins University's Born-Digital Visual History

Want to learn how to preserve digital information at a large scale, and, in the process, prepare yourself for a successful career in digital stewardship? The Johns Hopkins University Archives is looking for a talented NDSR resident to help us capture, describe, and provide ongoing management for a 50 terabyte collection of born-digital photographs. Fundamentally, the resident will apply core archival functions such as appraisal, accessioning, processing, preservation, description, and provision of access to born-digital content. The resident will also learn and use scripting languages and tools that are vital to manipulating large datasets such as XSLT, regular expressions, and OpenRefine. Software packages and other tools that the resident will use include ArchivesSpace, Archivematica, BitCurator, FTK, KryoFlux, hardware write blockers, and a Forensic Recovery of Evidence Device (FRED).. The resident will also gain substantial experience imaging legacy carrier media like DVDs and hard drives, primarily using forensic imaging software. Finally, the resident will prepare documentation and train staff to ensure ongoing stewardship of the born-digital dataset after the project’s end. In service of these objectives, the resident will regularly interact and collaborate with a variety of stakeholders—including the library’s information technology professionals, the Archives team, and stakeholders external to the library.
Required qualifications include: demonstrated knowledge of current web technologies; general knowledge of digital preservation and born-digital curation principles; knowledge of library and archival metadata standards including EAD, DACS and Dublin Core; organizational, analytical and problem-solving skills; strong attention to detail; excellent written and verbal communication skills. Preferred qualifications include experience with Archivists’ Toolkit or ArchivesSpace; experience with forensic imaging hardware and software, such as BitCurator, Archivematica, or FTK; experience with scripting languages; experience creating or maintaining process documentation and training materials.

World Bank Group Archives

Data Stewardship and Preservation Program

Passionate about data, transparency, digital preservation, and international development? Join forces with the World Bank Group’s (WBG) Archives and Development Data Group to lay the foundation for a data stewardship and preservation program at the World Bank. Your efforts will support global activities aiming to end poverty and promote shared prosperity. In addition, this program will ensure best practices for long term digital preservation are applied to WBG’s most valuable datasets. We seek a recent graduate from a Masters or PhD program with an academic focus on digital stewardship, archival practice, and data curation. We need someone who is technology savvy, has strong attention to detail, strong written and oral communication skills, and the ability to design and document clear guidelines that are easy to follow. Nice to haves include experience with large datasets, archival appraisal, and international development topics.
Come work with the teams behind the successful WBG Archives (worldbank.org/archives) program and the World Bank Open Data website (data.worldbank.org). The WBG Archives is one of the largest collections of development-related records in the world. The Development Data Group is World Bank’s focal point for statistics and data, providing high quality data products, analytical tools, and support to developing countries in building their statistical capacity. This joint project will build on the already successful World Bank Open Data Catalog, Microdata Library, and the WBG Archives program. This position will provide hands on experience in research of best practices and the creation and testing of guidelines against actual WBG datasets. The twelve month project will focus on: an assessment framework and appraisal guidelines for identification of data for permanent preservation; a set of analytic process document guidelines to enable documentation of processes used in the collection and analysis of data; and guidelines for linking datasets to related documents and analytical reports. Two experienced mentors will support this work, one in the Development Data Group and one in the Archives. These co-mentors will ensure that you have access to all the resources you need. Both on-site and off-site learning opportunities will be made available, including the chance to shadow mentors at meetings related to a wide range of topics. The World Bank is a multi-cultural and multi-lingual environment… with one of the best multicultural-cuisine cafeterias in the DC metro area!