"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

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 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. More details on UKOLN activities can be found on its website.

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.

The UKOLN systems infrastructure is heterogeneous and built on a core of Linux server systems, with a collection of mostly MS Windows-based office PCs and laptops together with a few running Linux or Mac OSX. It is maintained in close liaison with the University of Bath Computing Services (BUCS). The UKOLN Software & Systems Team is responsible for the creation, administration, maintenance and delivery of several Web sites, both outward- and inward facing, some hosted and mirrored Web sites, and the UKOLN intranet. The team currently supports office applications and systems, and manages a number of mailing lists and wikis. Software development and infrastructure are based largely on open-source technologies.

We are seeking to recruit a Technical Services Co-ordinator to provide leadership and supervision for the development and maintenance of all UKOLN technical infrastructure.

Attributes and Skills

The post-holder will require excellent communications skills as well as good technical expertise in the areas of system administration and web development. The following attributes and skills will be assessed at application and interview stages of the recruitment process.

Criteria	Essential	Desirable	Assessed by
Qualifications:			A/F	I/T	R
Educated to degree level		X
Experience/Knowledge
Experience with system administration, desktop and server hardware and networked applications in a mainly UNIX/Linux-based systems environment	X		X	X
Experience in the delivery of technical services	X		X	X
Extensive knowledge of current Web technologies	X		X	X
Experience with supporting the use of technical services by non-technical users	X
Experience with supervising systems-support staff		X	X	X
Software development experience		X	X	X
Experience with working in Higher Education		X	X	X
Skills:
Good organisational skills	X		X	X
Good inter-personal skills and a proven ability to work with a small team	X
Attributes:
Ability to write and present ideas well, and confidence in dealing with external contacts	X		X	X
Ability to work independently and to prioritise, organise, analyse and solve problems effectively	X		X	X
Code: A/F – Application form, I/T – Interview/Test, R - References