"A centre of excellence in digital information management, providing advice and services to the library, information and cultural heritage communities."

UKOLN is based at the University of Bath.

Person Specification

UKOLN

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 Council for Museums, Libraries & Archives (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.

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.

JISC

The JISC Repositories and Preservation Programme is a £14m investment in Higher Education repository and digital content infrastructure. It will fund initiatives to develop the Information Environment supporting digital repositories and preservation, including cross-searching facilities across repositories; funding for institutions to develop a critical mass of content, preservation solutions and advice for the development of repositories.

The programme builds on the existing JISC programmes, in particular the Digital Repository Programme and the Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions Programme. See http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_rep_pres.aspx for more detail.

As part of the coordination of the programme activity the JISC has agreed to a full time post to concentrate on the integration of Shared Infrastructure Services (SIS) and the repositories produced by the Start up and Enhancement (SUE) strand. The post will be based at UKOLN, University of Bath. However the management of the programme rests within the JISC Executive, and in particular with the JISC Programme Manager responsible for the Start Up and Enhancement strand.

The Systems Developer (Repositories Integration) will work across the funded projects in the Start Up and Enhancement and Shared Infrastructure Services strand as part of a co-ordinated programme. The post will be responsible for:

• Developing integrations between Shared Infrastructure Services and a variety of digital repository software platforms.
• Preparing documentation to support take up of the integrations for repositories not funded by the JISC programme.
• Supporting the JISC programme manager with any engagement or training events for the integration work.

The vision of the Repositories and Preservation Programme is to establish a network of digital resources and services, in order to significantly improve content use and curation.

The main activities of the programme are:

• Digital repositories projects to further develop repositories for universities and colleges
• Digital preservation – the programme will take forward the development of a distributed environment for digital preservation, in which services, roles and responsibilities are scoped and defined
• Discovery to delivery - a service to provide searching across UK repositories and the agreement of standards for searching and semantic interoperability
• Tools and innovation - the programme will develop and pilot innovative approaches to repository use and digital preservation through the development of new software and tools
• Shared infrastructure in support of both national and international developments, the programme will develop shared infrastructure services such as user profiling services, digital rights management, registries, identifier services, terminology and preservation services.

The main outcomes of the programme are:

• Institutional and repository services will be further developed and populated.
• A richer search infrastructure for UK digital repositories.
• Further refinement of the application of standards and specifications for digital repositories and preservation.
• New software and tools for both digital repository use and digital preservation.
• Increased understanding of how repositories can be used and embedded to support education and research.
• Pilot implementations and models for resource discovery and preservation shared infrastructure.
• Clarification of roles and responsibilities across digital preservation services.

It is anticipated that the programme will result in a range of benefits for universities and colleges, including better access to and management of their intellectual outputs, increased capability within the sector to manage these assets for education and research, and an infrastructure that will support the sector into the future.

Further background information about the programme and details of the projects in the programme can be found at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/programme_rep_pres.aspx.

As indicated above, the post will be responsible for developing software to integrate Shared Infrastructure Services into repositories as well as preparing documentation so that the wider community can duplicate the work carried out by the postholder. This work will involve the following issues:

• Working with the JISC programme managers to encourage project staff to engage with the integration work and to identify priority areas of integration work.
• Integrating a range of SIS with a range of repository software.
• Supporting project staff with the technical issues involved in integration.
• Documenting the integration process so that it can be repeated by others who are interested.
• Assisting in the organisation of technical events to test prototypes and develop software.
• Coordinating with colleagues who are working with similar projects.
• Communicating the results of the integration work to the HE community

ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS

The post-holder will require excellent communications skills as well as good technical expertise.

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

The post-holder will require good communication skills, good technical expertise and knowledge of the UK higher education sector.

The Systems Developer (Repositories Integration) should be able to demonstrate the following skills and attributes:

Essential

• Experience in developing and working with software interfaces for integration purposes.
• Experience in working with one or more of the following programming languages: Java, Perl, Python, Ruby.
• Experience in developing with other supporting technologies, especially HTTP and XML.
• Expertise in information and resource discovery technologies and standards.
• Good written communication skills.
• Good presentation skills.
• Ability to work with small groups of people.
• Good inter-personal skills.
• The Integration Developer must be able to work independently, prioritise tasks and be confident in dealing with a range of external contacts.

Desirable

• Familiarity with the digital repository area within the education sector will be beneficial but not required.
• Familiarity with the technical and interoperability challenges in the digital repository area will be beneficial but not required.