Vacancy at the British Library: Digital Preservation Officer

Digital Preservation Officer
Salary:  £37,937-£44,059 per annum plus benefits       
Location: London
Position Type: Full-time, fixed term (2 years)
Closing date: 29th May 2013

The British Library is currently recruiting for a Digital Preservation Officer to join the Digital Preservation Team at the British Library. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to work at the cutting edge of international digital preservation research & development, and help ensure the Library can preserve its digital collections far into the future. Working closely with colleagues from across the Library, the successful candidate will be part of our digital preservation R&D team and contribute to the successful delivery of the Library’s new digital preservation strategy. The post holder will work with digital material in a wide range of formats, exploring and analysing our options to help us identify the most appropriate means of safeguarding our digital collections for future generations.This is a London-based post, fixed term for two years.

More details at http://bit.ly/11DTHX4

Vacancy at The National Archives: Development Lead for Digital Records Infrastructure

Lead Developer Digital Records Infrstructure
Salary: £40-45,000
Location: London
Postition Type: Full time, permanent
Closing Date: 31st May 2013

Are you seeking to build a career in a world-leading institution using your skills and experience in software development to preserve a nation’s history? Building on our award-winning experience in digital preservation, The National Archives is developing a new Digital Records Infrastructure (DRI) system to acquire, store and preserve our rapidly increasing digital collection. Operating at petabyte-scale, this system will ensure the long-term preservation of the UK government’s records. Records such as government websites, the records of significant public inquiries, the decisions and deliberation of senior officials, ministers and prime ministers and the nations digitised history from the 10th to the early 21st century are all to be preserved in the system.

As the Development Lead for the DRI, you will play a key role in the delivery of this innovative and high-profile system, ensuring that it remains capable of handling the latest digital records as new record formats are presented to the archives for permanent preservation. The current system comprises a series of batch-processing workflows constructed predominantly in Java, XSLT, XML Schema and Bash script running in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment. You will influence the future technical design of the system and be responsible for setting the technical direction and tasks of the team, mentoring staff, undertaking code review and also writing code yourself. You must be an expert in at least one or more programming languages, with a good level of knowledge of others. A concrete understanding of TCP/IP networking and Linux systems would be an advantage.

You should be passionate about both technology and information management. Your creativity and experience will be essential to the organisation to inform and shape the design of new workflows that you will need to translate into efficient operational code. You will liaise with Heads of Department, technical staff throughout the Technology Directorate, and colleagues across The National Archives and beyond; the role will be varied and challenging.

For more information see: http://bit.ly/YWaing

The Chair of the Digital Preservation Coalition cordially invites

... the British Library, Cambridge University Library, Creative Scotland, the Digital Curation Centre, JISC, The National Archives, The National Records of Scotland, The National Library of Scotland, The Open University, Oxford University Library Service, Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, Research Councils UK, and the University of London Computer Centre...

to send a delegates to the meeting of the DPC Directors’ Group, at The Grange Hotel, Bootham York on Thursday 4th July 2013, 1130-1600

The Directors’ Group provides an extended and informal networking opportunity at which staff, partners, contractors or allies of full members of the Coalition are invited to describe and discuss current, forthcoming and future digital preservation projects. It allows staff, colleagues and supporters - who might not normally attend Board meetings - to contribute to the Coalition’s work plan for the coming year. It encourages the development of bilateral and multi-lateral relationships among members; helps disseminate good practice; and ensures that the work of the coalition remains tied to the changing needs of the workforce.Full members are invited to nominate up to four delegates.

Delegates can be drawn from any department, project, partnership or constituent of the institution so long as they are able to contribute to and benefit from an open discussion on digital preservation and cognate issues. Delegates will be expected to participate in a range of activities which introduce their own current and future work, which review the work of others and which help inform the work of the Coalition in the coming year. The event will be help under ‘Chatham House Rules’, therefore allowing members to share genuine challenges and present emerging tools and processes without them being reported outside. An outline programme and details of logistics are attached.Lunch will be provided and refreshments will be available throughout the day.

For more details and to RSVP see: http://www.dpconline.org/events/details/48-directors-group-2012?xref=50

Conference Report: Screening the Future 2013

Briefing notes from the PrestoCentre organised conference Screening the Future 2013 have been added to the conference report area of the DPC website (login required).

• Click here to register for the DPC website.

Vacancy at London School of Economics: Senior Library Assistant (Digital Library)

Senior Library Assistant (Digital Library)
Position Type: Full Time, Permanent
Closing Date: Midnight 26th May 2013
Salary: £26,846 - £31,074 per annum inclusive
Loction: London

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is one of the foremost social sciencecuniversities in the world. The Library of LSE provides one of the best social science collections in any university – supporting the research and teaching of LSE as well as opening its doors to the wider world. The role of the Collections Services Group is to acquire, catalogue and make available resources to support the teaching and research activities of the Library’s user community, to produce an IT framework that supports the work of the Library and to ensure preservation of print and digital collections.

The Senior Library Assistant (Digital Library) will take a lead on the addition of content to LSE Digital Library from a variety of sources such as digitisation projects and born-digital acquisitions across a range of established and emerging collection areas. You will work closely with the Digital Library team to develop new workflows to enable our services to scale significantly in coming years. Over time this is likely to involve the supervision of staff as these workflows become part of the day-to-day work of the Library. You will be involved in innovation projects to develop new Digital Library functionality and play a key role in ensuring that the transition from development to embedded capacity is handled effectively. Over the next few years we will be building several new digital collections from the ground up making this an exciting opportunity to contribute to the growth of our Digital Library service.

This is a very exciting time for LSE Library with the development of our digital library to acquire, preserve and provide access to digital collections, the introduction of the Women’s Library @ LSE – Europe’s largest collection of material relating to the lives of women – together with a building modernisation project to enable the library to

Candidates should have a high level of IT literacy and familiarity with a range of software applications and the internet. Experience of working with a library management system, institutional repository, or digital library system is essential, as is experience of creating or processing metadata. Candidates should also be able to communicate complex information in a clear and accurate manner, using terms appropriate to the audience, and work effectively with others as part of a team.

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Helen Williams, Assistant Librarian (Cataloguing): This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Ed Fay, Digital Library Manager: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

To apply for this post please go to http://www.lse.ac.uk/JobsatLSE and select “Vacancies”.

Vacancies at King's College London: 'Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability Manager', and 'Community of Practice Co-ordinator'

There are currently two posts availabile at the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London: a Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability Manager and a Community of Practice Co-ordinator.  Both posts are associated with the Presto4U initiative.  Details below.

Knowledge Transfer and Sustainability Manager (Presto4U)
Position type: Full time, Fixed Term (18 months)
Closing Date: 29th May 2013
Salary: £31,330 plus £2323 London Allowance
Location: London

The Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London seeks an EU Knowledge Transfer & Sustainability Manager to deliver the PRESTO4U core deliverables on behalf of King’s. PRESTO4U is a European Union project with the full title European Technology for Digital Audiovisual Media Preservation. The role will focus upon delivery of the technology and knowledge transfer from preservation research to the projects communities of practice.

The successful candidate for this position will have existing experience and knowledge of digital preservation and preferably knowledge and experience of the audiovisual industry and community. The candidate will need to be able to work to a very tight project schedule and have experience of working in projects with a both a knowledge transfer and technical focus.

For more details see: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=13176

Community of Practice Co-ordinator (Presto4U)
Position type: Full time, Fixed Term (17 months)
Closing Date: 29th May 2013
Salary:Grade 5 - £26,264 plus £2323 London Allowance
Location: London

The Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London seeks an EU Community of Practice Co-ordinator to deliver the PRESTO4U core deliverables on behalf of King’s. PRESTO4U is a European Union project with the full title European Technology for Digital Audiovisual Media Preservation. The post holder will create a Community of Practice for Learning and Teaching audiovisual media preservation, which will develop a body of knowledge on the status of digital preservation practice, outstanding problems and needs for access to research results.

The successful candidate for this position will have existing experience and knowledge of digital preservation and preferably knowledge and experience of the audiovisual industry and community. The candidate will need to be able to work to a very tight project schedule and have an understanding of working in projects with a technical focus but also the capability to build and maintain a Community of Practice (CoP) across subjects and national boundaries.

For more details see: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/pertra/vacancy/external/pers_detail.php?jobindex=13177

Deadline approaching to apply for DPTP Scholarships in May 2013

The deadline is approaching for DPC members to apply for three fully-funded scholarships to attend the Digital Preservation Training Programme at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 20^th-22^nd May 2013.  Applications are due by 1200 on 3rd May. 

The Digital Preservation Training Programme (DPTP) is designed for all those working in institutional information management who are grappling with fundamental issues of digital preservation. It provides the skills and knowledge necessary for institutions to combine organisational and technological perspectives and devise an appropriate response to the challenges that digital preservation needs present. DPTP is operated and organised by the University of London Computer Centre with contributions from invited experts. It is supported by the Digital Preservation Coalition which originally helped to establish the course in 2005. Attendance at the Digital Preservation Training Programme costs £650 per person (excluding VAT). However, the Digital Preservation Coalition is pleased to offer three full scholarships which meet the costs of the course.  Applications are welcomed from DPC members and associates. The scholarship covers all tuition fees, course materials, access to online resources, lunch and refreshments.  Travel, accommodation and subsistence are not funded.

This is the tenth time the DPC has offered scholarships to attend the course.  Successful applicants will be asked to help promote the course and the work of the coalition. The DPC has supported a total of forty six scholarships to attend this course

• For more details of eligibility and how to apply for this and other scholarships see the DPC Leadership Programme

Vacancy at National Library of Scotland: Digital Preservation Officer

Digital Preservation Officer
Position type: Full time, Permanent
Closing Date: 13th May 2013
Salary: Band 6, £27,420 - £31,788
Location: Edinburgh

An exciting opportunity to preserve the nation’s digital heritage!

National Library of Scotland is seeking a dedicated information or digital technology professional with excellent digital preservation skills and experience to help preserve the nation’s digital heritage for future generations. You will play a key role in the on-going development of the Library’s digital preservation environment, policy, and strategies, and in ensuring that the digital content that the we create and collect today remains understandable and accessible in the future. The Digital Preservation Officer will be a key member of the Digital Assets Team, and will work with NLS staff and partners, and the digital preservation community across the UK and beyond.

Closing date for completed applications: Monday 13th May 2013

For more information please see the Library’s career site http://bit.ly/YwYti7

PREMIS and METS Event - Slides now available

Slides from our PREMIS and METS event at the Pullman Hotel in London on Tuesday 23rd April 2013 are now available online.  Thank you to our speakers for sharing an insight into this important subject and to our attendees for some engaging discussion and debate, making the day a resounding success. Feedback on the event has remained positive with many people commenting on the quality of the presentations which provided a good overview of both subjects, as well as a practical demonstration of how PREMIS and METS may be used within your own institutions. 

Screening the Future, May 7-8 Tate Modern

DPC Member, Tate is hosting the 'Screening the Future Conference in London May 7-8

Screening the future is an annual showcase delivered by PrestoCentre and focusing on the latest trends in audiovisual preservation. This international conference brings together leaders in the fields of technology and research, and those with strategic responsibility for digitisation and digital preservation in the creative and cultural industries including broadcast, post-production, motion picture, sound and music recording, visual and performing arts. The conference aims to navigate participants through current case studies and latest thinking on standards and planning for the digital preservation of AV assets.

The next conference will be held at the Tate Modern in London on 7-8 May -- more information here: http://2013.screeningthefuture.com