Upcoming Event: Lecture by Frank Lee, “City at Play” Followed by “Games, Gaming, and Play!” An Open Festival at Temple University, Wednesday, September 30
Frank J. Lee will lecture on the City at Play – An Exploration of Physical Spaces and Digital Games
Wednesday, September 30, 2:30 pm, Paley Library Lecture Hall, 1210 Polett Walk, Ground Floor
For the last two years, Frank Lee has “hacked” (with permission) the LED lights of the Cira Centre Building, a 29-story Philadelphia skyscraper, to create large-scale, interactive games of Pong and Tetris. In his talk at Temple, Lee will discuss the aesthetic these large-scale gaming installations ignite, which he calls “a shared moment” for Philadelphia and Philadelphians. For his talk at Temple, Lee will also put forth his larger vision for using urban structures and spaces as game tokens in city-wide interactive games, while exploring the interaction and intersection of physical spaces and digital games.
Dr. Frank J. Lee is an Associate Professor of Digital Media in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University with appointments in Psychology, Computer Science, and Biomedical Engineering.
This program is part of the Beyond the Page public programming Games Without Frontiers series and will be followed by Games, Gaming, and Play! An Opening Festival
Throughout Paley Library, 1210 Polett Walk, 5-8 pm
Games, gaming, and play take over Paley Library! Organizations, gamers, and game makers from throughout the city will gather to showcase hands-on activities, video and tabletop games, and more. We’ll also have live music, food and giveaways. Participants include the Temple University Gamers’ Guild, the Moore College of Art and Design, Game Forge, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philly Nerd Nite, the Game Room at the Howard Gittis Student Center, and Temple University Cricket Club. With musical entertainment from Cheap Dinosaurs. Live broadcast by WHIP Radio.
Job Opportunities: Systems Administrator and Digital Imaging Technician at the Chemical Heritage Foundation
CHF is hiring for a Systems Administrator to contribute to our new DevOps environment. The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) is seeking candidates for the full-time position of Systems Administrator. The Systems Administrator will oversee the technical infrastructure for CHF’s forthcoming digital collection, built on the open-source Hydra repository technology stack (Fedora 4, Solr, and Blacklight). The Systems Administrator will also be responsible for architecting scalable cloud-based Linux infrastructure for multiple applications serving library, archive, museum, and oral history collections using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Responsibilities include:
Manage CHF’s AWS environment.
Contribute to development operations (DevOps) by using build automation and deployment tools.
Coordinate and perform large-scale upgrades and OS-level updates.
Install and maintain open-source software applications, upgrades, and patches.
Set up and conduct process monitoring, log analysis, and load testing; make adjustments for improved services and increasing storage capacity as needed.
Design and implement strategies for back-ups; maintain back-up scripts.
Oversee security provisions and perform regular security monitoring.
Perform and maintain risk assessments and business impact analyses.
Manage user application accounts and integrate with LDAP server.
Communicate with different departments and provide user support, as needed.
The successful candidate will possess:
A minimum of 3 years experience in systems administration or similar field, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Bachelor’s degree.
Demonstrated knowledge of Linux servers.
Experience installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting open-source technology.
Demonstrated record of success in learning new technologies.
Experience reconfiguring multi-server architecture, preferably with Amazon Web Services (AWS), is a plus.
Experience working with Git and GitHub in a collaborative environment is preferred.
Experience with build automation tools (such as Chef or Ansible) is a plus.
Knowledge of CMS and DAMS software used at cultural heritage institutions, such as Drupal, Hydra, ArchivesSpace, or similar.
Knowledge of a scripting language such as Bash, Python, or Ruby.
Experience working with a Java Virtual Machine (JVM), especially serving Java applications via Tomcat, is a plus.
Experience administering and tuning an SQL database server such as PostgreSQL or MySQL is a plus.
To be considered for this position, please send cover letter with salary expectations and resume to:
Details are at: http://www.chemheritage.org/about/careers/systems-administrator.aspx
CHF is also seeking a Digital Imaging Technician to work with our Digital Collections Archivist on our first mass archival digitization. It’d be a great job for a recent MLIS graduate, and I know we have plenty of these talented folks across the Philly area: http://www.chemheritage.org/about/careers/digital-imaging-technician.aspx
Job Opportunity: Digital Humanities and Web Services Librarian, University of Delaware
The University of Delaware Library seeks a creative, enthusiastic professional for the position of Digital Humanities and Web Services Librarian. Reporting to the Head, Library Server and Data Management Department in the Library Technologies and Digital Initiatives Division, the position works closely with colleagues throughout the library in three areas of primary responsibility:
• Facilitate and provide support to University of Delaware digital humanities initiatives. Work collaboratively with library colleagues and campus faculty in creating scholarly projects in the humanities. Provide guidance to and maintain a working knowledge of available library and campus resources. Evaluate existing tools and technologies and investigate emerging technologies for potential uses in humanities research. Provide training and group instruction and partner with other library colleagues in outreach.
• Coordinate the University of Delaware Library web environment, which provides worldwide access to collections, services and resources. Create new original content. Maintain and enhance existing web content and delivery. Assess and monitor the functionality of Library web content delivery, as well as the visual display of content. Ensure user accessibility. Assist library staff in the development and implementation of new web content and services. Create documentation, compile user statistics and analysis reports. Facilitate communication regarding web trends and new resources.
• Collaborate with library colleagues to plan and manage web projects to increase electronic access to Library content and collections, particularly unique and scholarly materials from the Library’s digital collections. Participate in the design, implementation, and enhancement of content delivery systems such as REST (Representational State Transfer), Omeka and XTF (eXtensible Text Framework). Collaborate with other colleagues on open web resources, digital asset management, and content sharing initiatives, such as the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) Wikiproject.
Recent projects have included the creation of an online exhibition site using the Omeka software, the delivery of XML EAD based finding aids using the XTF software, and the redesign and migration of the Library website to WordPress. Ongoing projects include working with the Colored Conventions digital humanities project, enhancements to the campus institutional repository, the creation of a new digital collections portal, efforts to directly embed content from digital collections stored in Artstor and DSpace into webpages, and the exploration of crowdsourcing. For additional information about Digital Humanities at the University of Delaware please visit http://www.ihrc.udel.edu.
Qualifications: ALA accredited graduate library degree. Demonstrated experience in web design and content creation. Demonstrated experience working effectively with HTML, CSS, and WordPress. Familiarity with Javascript, PHP, XSLT and XML. Familiarity with emerging trends in digital humanities and data mining. Ability to write concisely and effectively for the web. Excellent interpersonal skills. Ability to communicate technical information to users with various levels of technology experience. Ability to work collaboratively with people of diverse backgrounds. Ability to manage multiple priorities in fast-paced, rapidly changing technical environment. Demonstrated aptitude for detail oriented work including strong analytic and problem solving skills. Excellent organization, planning, and decision-making skills.
Benefits: Vacation of 22 working days. TIAA-CREF or Fidelity retirement with 11% of salary contributed by the University. Tuition remission for dependents and spouses, and course fee waiver for employee. Full information about University of Delaware benefits is available online: http://www .udel.edu/Benefits/
Appointment: Appointment will be at the rank of Assistant Librarian, pay grade 29E, or Senior Assistant Librarian, pay grade 30E. New graduates of ALA accredited graduate degree programs are encouraged to apply. The University of Delaware Library Rank and Promotion System document is available online at http://www2.lib.udel.edu/personnel/promo.htm.
To Apply: Include cover letter and resume, along with the names and contact information of three employment references, in a single document, following University of Delaware application instructions at http://www.udel.edu/udjobs/ by October 9, 2015.
Job Opportunity: Managing Director of the Price Lab for Digital Humanities at Penn
The School of Arts and Sciences (SAS) at the University of Pennsylvania seeks a leader with experience and vision to help launch a major new center for digital humanities research. The Price Lab for Digital Humanities will play a key role in fostering technologically advanced interdisciplinary scholarship and innovative curricular initiatives. The Managing Director will work closely with the Faculty Director and Executive Board to build and sustain an intellectual community and to make the best use of the new infrastructure and services represented by the Price Lab. We seek someone who will help to develop the center’s strategic goals as well as to achieve them. Reporting to the Faculty Director and the SAS Dean’s office, the Managing Director will have primary responsibility for day-to-day operations of the center and will be instrumental in developing its vision and raising its national profile as well as ensuring its smooth and effective operation.
Qualifications: A Master’s Degree or more and 5 years to 7 years of experience or equivalent combination of education and experience is required.
* Ph.D., terminal Masters, combination M.L.S. and humanities M.A., or comparable educational background in the humanities, library sciences, or relevant field of the social sciences
* Minimum of 4 years’ experience working in a prominent DH program or center
* Minimum of 4 years’ experience with project management for academic research, including digital research
* Demonstrated expertise in the use of digital tools and methods in humanities scholarship
* Experience in an administrative position with supervisory responsibilities
* Experience with budget management and oversight of financial operations
* Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills
* Excellent organizational habits and ability to manage and prioritize diverse activities
* Demonstrated leadership, problem-solving, and decision-making skills
Posting for this job can be found at https://jobs.hr.upenn.edu/postings/12753
Upcoming Event: Mid-Atlantic Fedora User Group Meetup, at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, November 30-December 1
Registration for the Mid-Atlantic Fedora User Group meetup is now open.
It’ll be two days: Monday, November 30th and Tuesday, December 1st.
This is an opportunity to learn about Fedora (http://www.fedora-commons.org/) if you’re not yet familiar with it. This is also a great chance to hear how Fedora is being used in the community. We’ll have several presenters from around the area talking about their presentations.
The program is arranged to move from the more general to the specific. The first day will cover an introduction to Fedora, and a wide variety of examples of how people are using it. As the day progresses, the talks will become increasingly technical. The second day will be hands-on workshops for developers and others who work extensively with Fedora.
Fedora is used in a wide variety of digital library platforms and tools. We’ll be joined by David Wilcox, Product Manager of Fedora, and representatives from the Digital Public Library of America.
You can learn more from the website: http://midatlanticfedorausers.org/
You can register (for one or both days) here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mid-atlantic-fedora-users-group-tickets-18686418581
Upcoming Event: MARAC Ingest and Management of Digital Collections Workshop, October 23, Morristown, NJ
Ingest and Management of Digital Collections Workshop
REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
Date: Friday, October 23, 2015
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: Morristown & Morris Township Library, 1 Miller Road, Morristown, New Jersey 07960
Instructors: Josh Ranger and Rebecca Chandler, AVPreserve
Cost: $85
Parking and Directions: http://www.jfpl.org/directions.cfm
Workshop Preparation: Free Internet applications downloaded onto attendees’ laptops for hand-on exercises
Workshop Description:
The common use and creation of electronic records has been ongoing for over 30 years, and the rate of creation continues to increase as technology makes it easier and easier to create image, audio, and video files, and as we continue digitizing analog collections. For archives there is a heightened risk of loss or inability to access these records if regular workflows for ingest, management, and preservation are not instituted. This full day workshop will present case studies of such workflows for large and small institutions dealing with digitized and born digital collections, and then provide hands-on training in the use of assorted free digital curation tools (Fixity, MDQC, Bagger/BagIt, exiftool, etc.) that support ingest, transfer, storage, metadata generation, and monitoring of electronic records. Participants will come away with a clear knowledge of how to use these tools and what role they play in collection management workflows, and a sense of how to implement the use of the tools within their institution. Attendees will need to bring laptops with all applications downloaded and installed to participate in hands-on exercises. All applications are available free of charge on the Internet.
About the Instructors:
Josh Ranger is a Senior Consultant with AVPreserve where he has worked since 2007 heading up Collection Assessment and Inventory, with a specialization in data analysis and communication in support of planning, advocacy, collection management, and resource development. Recent projects have focused on non-traditional and production-based archives, including broadcasting collections, performance documentation, and institutional archives. Joshua’s work centers on managing high-efficiency item-level inventories, creating processing workflows for audiovisual materials, and developing preservation plans for unprocessed and distributed collections. Josh initially found/honed his love of information management in the worlds of Natural History, insurance, and the Walt Whitman Electronic Archive. He has earned MAs in Moving Image Archiving & Preservation from NYU and in American Studies from the University of Virginia, and his BA in English from the University of Oregon.
Rebecca Chandler has been a consultant with AVPreserve since 2014 where she specializes in analysis and recommendations for digitization workflows, infrastructure, and staffing. Recent projects have focused on market analysis and digitization lab design for organizations such as NEDCC, the New York Public Library, and the Southern Folklife Collection at UNC. Rebecca is an experienced audio engineer, having worked in audio post-production at Broadway Video, Creative Group, and Sony Music Studios. She earned her MLIS with an Archives certificate from Pratt Institute and holds a BM in Music Technology from NYU.
Registration:
Online Registration is available at https://marac.memberclicks.net/index.php?
For questions regarding workshop registration, contact: the MARAC Administrator at admini…@marac.info.
For additional information about the workshop, contact: Laurie Rizzo, 302.658.2400 ext. 277 or lri…@hagley.org .
Academy of Certified Archivist credits available upon request.
Reminder: GLAM Cafe and Philly DH Meeting at the Paley Library Digital Scholarship Center, Temple University, Tuesday, September 8
Join us next week Tuesday, 9/8, at the new Temple University Digital Scholarship a center on the ground floor of Paley Library for our next PhillyDH meeting during GLAM Cafe! The GLAM Cafe begins at 5 with the PhillyDH meeting starting at about 6. THATCamp Philly 2015 is almost here so we will be going over logistics, getting volunteers for areas (particularly getting the website for this year up), marketing, etc. #1 goal is to get the website up and advertised and I would love if we could have at least part of it be a working meeting to make that happen while we are all gathered together. The past few meetings has also had a group working on the phillydh website, discussing where we want phillydh to do, and breaking off into their own projects. Wikipedians will be there also, editing Wikipedia and perhaps looking at themes of Games and Gaming.
This is the last GLAM cafe for the year at Temple. We will finish out 2015 starting in October back in our first home of CHF.
Directions to Paley, just a short subway ride from center city or from the Temple regional rail stop.
http://library.temple.edu/about/locations/paley/directions
Upcoming Event: Project Launch, Politics in Graphic Detail: Exploring History through Political Cartoons, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Wednesday, September 16, 6-7:30pm
On Wednesday September 16, 2015 (6:00-7:30pm), the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) will host an event to premier the digital history exhibit, Politics in Graphic Detail: Exploring History through Political Cartoons. The digital exhibit will showcase a new open source image viewer and historic political cartoons that have been encoded in XML following Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) P5 guidelines. Please join us on September 16th at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania as project staff will discuss and demonstrate the features of the new site. This will be followed by a document display featuring political cartoons, including an original Thomas Nast artwork and a reception. Please register for this free event at http://hsp.org/calendar/politics-in-graphic-detail-exploring-history-through-political-cartoons.
When: Wednesday, September 16
Time: 6:00-7:30 pm
Where: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Register for event: http://hsp.org/calendar/politics-in-graphic-detail-exploring-history-through-political-cartoons
Cost: FREE
About the project:
Over the course of the last two years, HSP has been working on a digital project intended to improve the image viewer that displays digitized materials from our collections. Our aim was to enhance discoverability and description of collection items, particularly of graphic materials, and engender content-sharing and linking among fellow institutions and scholars. This project, known as “Historic Images, New Technologies,” officially comes to an end on August 31 and the Politics in Graphic Detail exhibit site launches online on September 1. Politics in Graphic Detail, the result of our efforts, will feature the newly improved image viewer, along with annotated political cartoons from our archive.
Job Opportunity: PostDoc at Price Lab for Digital Humanities at Penn
The Price Lab for Digital Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for the 2016-17 Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in Digital Humanities. One award is available to an untenured scholar in the humanities whose PhD must have been received between December 2007 and December 2015. The DH Fellow is required to spend the nine-month academic year (September 2016 – May 2017) in residence at Penn.
The PhD is the only eligible terminal degree. MFAs and other doctorates such as EdD are ineligible. In addition to scholars from the core humanities disciplines, those in related fields such as anthropology and the history of science are eligible to apply. Additional educational background in programming, library sciences, computer graphics, computational linguistics, or other fields relevant to digital humanities research is desirable but not required.
The Mellon Fellow will be affiliated with both the School of Arts and Sciences and the Penn Libraries, and will participate in the biweekly Price Lab Mellon Seminar. The fellow will pursue his or her own research project, presenting this work at the seminar, while also contributing to team-based projects at the Lab, and teaching one DH course during the year in the undergraduate College. (While the application requires a brief course description, actual specifications of the class will be worked out next spring with the Price Lab’s Managing Director.)
The Mellon DH Fellowship carries an annual stipend of $55,000 plus single-coverage health insurance (fellows are responsible for coverage of any dependents). Applicants from outside the US must be eligible for appointment under a J-1 visa (Research Scholar status); no exceptions will be made, and the Price Lab reserves the right to revoke a fellowship if the recipient is unable to meet this condition.
Applications are accepted via secure webform only. Requires three letters of recommendation, an application form, and a CV.
Full fellowship guidelines, the downloadable application, and details on the Price Lab website: pricelab.sas.upenn.edu
Application deadline: 30 October 2015.
Upcoming Events: WORD LAB Research Community Events at Penn Library
You’re invited to WORD LAB’s first meeting of the 2015 academic year on Tuesday, September 8, from 1:30-3 in Vitale II (room 623 of Van Pelt Library). WORD LAB gathers together colleagues from across the university who are interested in computational text analysis of all kinds. Our agenda is determined by the group and reflects our diverse interests. To see what we did last year, visit upennwordlab.org.
WORD LAB meets every Tuesday, starting September 8, from 1:30-3pm in Van Pelt Library’s Vitale II room (623). These meetings are a place for colleagues to share research, methodologies, questions, and new developments in computational text analysis. Right now, we have a weekly rotating schedule: a research presentation and group discussion; a reading group; and group study of Python for text analysis with the book _Natural Language Processing with Python_.
Our upcoming events include:
* September 8: Kick off and introductions
* September 15: Articles by Merriman, McMillan Cottom, and Goldstone (see website)
* September 22: Glen Worthey (Stanford; humanities text analysis)
* September 29: Python session (NLTK)
* October 6: Articles by Underwood and Forster (see website)
* October 13: Python session (NLTK)
* October 20: Aaron Plasek (NYU; principal component analysis)
For more information, please contact Katie Rawson ([email protected]) or Molly Des Jardin ([email protected]). You can also check out our website at http://upennwordlab.org or just come to our meetings — no registration is ever necessary and all are welcome. Email Molly to join our mailing list.