Position Available

[Pat Hodges]

METADATA HARVESTING PROJECT LIBRARIAN
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DIGITAL LIBRARY PRODUCTION SERVICE
ONE-YEAR TERM APPOINTMENT

The Digital Library Production Service (DLPS), a part of the 
University of Michigan Library, is UM's key organization for 
creation, deployment and support of local digital library 
collections. DLPS develops models and provides production level 
support for electronic library collections in a number of subject 
and format areas. Online collection resources include significant 
image- and text-based journal collections, art image collections, 
and a leading edge SGML/XML development effort.

This grant-funded position entails project management duties as 
well as primary responsibility (along with a project programmer) 
for implementation and evaluation of a project to create a 
generic Web index to digital library materials on the Internet.  
Information about those materials will be "harvested" using the 
OAI protocol (see http://www.openarchives.org/) using tools 
developed by the University of Illinois and implemented at 
Michigan.

DUTIES
-------
The Project Librarian will work with the Head of the Digital 
Library Production Service, other staff members in DLPS to 
perform the following:

--The project librarian will work with other institutions to 
identify sources of metadata and, where possible, to get early 
releases of metadata to test in the DLXS Bibliographic Class 
access mechanisms.

--The project librarian will perform modest (interface-based) 
adaptations of the DLXS Bibliographic Class retrieval system for 
the purpose of making available harvested data to the public.

--The project librarian will conduct basic usability studies, 
using a variety of methods common in studies of human-computer 
interaction.  These methods are likely to include "heuristic 
assessment," interviews, questionnaires, and user testing.

--The project librarian will perform log analysis.  S/he will 
compare searches and results to putative "best answers" as 
determined by specialist librarians, as well as results that can 
be obtained in the currently available Web search systems.

--Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the project librarian 
will conduct trials with users of the basic system, as deployed 
in the earlier phase, against modifications intended to simulate 
the probabilistic retrieval provided by popular Web search 
systems. 

TO APPLY
---------
Applications received by 8/17/01 will be given first 
consideration.

Application instructions and further details may be found at
http://www.lib.umich.edu/humres/vac-metadata.htm

The University of Michigan is a non-discriminatory, affirmative 
action employer.