[tdwg] Fwd: Postdoctoral Opportunity at University of Maryland, College Park

[Cynthia Parr]

Apologies for cross-posting.

Dear colleagues,

Please see the following announcement for a postdoctoral fellow to
work with the University of Maryland's iSchool and the USDA's National
Agricultural Library.

Feel free to forward to promising candidates or networks.

Cynthia Sims Parr, Ph.D.
Knowledge Services Division
National Agricultural Library, ARS, USDA
301-504-9801
Cynthia.Parr at ars.usda.gov



Postdoctoral Opportunity in Agricultural Data Curation at the College
of Information Studies (iSchool), University of Maryland, College Park

Maryland's iSchool seeks a postdoctoral fellow to work on the project
"Establishing a Data Curation Program for Agricultural Information" at
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural
Library (NAL). Depending on the candidate's background, expertise, and
interests, several exciting research projects could be complementary
to the role envisioned for this postdoctoral position. Potential
research areas include (but are not limited to) metadata standards,
data preservation and re-use, data curation, and digitization
management. The postdoctoral fellow will also have access to the
iSchool's recently established digital curation lab. College Park's
close proximity to NAL and other large Federal institutions in the
Washington, D.C. area offers easy access to many related data
repositories.

The postdoctoral fellow will receive a competitive salary, including
benefits and support for conference and research travel. The duration
of the postdoc is 2 years, with opportunity for renewal. Start date
for the position can be as early as January 2015.

Roles and Responsibilities: This postdoctoral fellowship is a research
position, with an expectation of productive research activity that
will result in journal publications or conference presentations. The
primary responsibilities of the fellow will include participation in a
research project that aims to understand the data curation needs and
requirements of NAL and to develop strategies that guarantee the
management and preservation of NAL's expansive collection of
agricultural data for long-term use.

NAL has recently established a Knowledge Services Division (KSD) to
lead efforts in digital curation. The postdoctoral fellow shall work
with an interdisciplinary team of faculty and graduate students at the
iSchool to conduct research and implement policies that will help KSD
further understand NAL's capacity for data curation and preservation.
KSD staff is a mix of highly qualified and enthusiastic information
professionals, researchers, and scientists. The postdoctoral fellow
will have ample opportunity to interact with archives, digital
preservation and digital curation researchers from the iSchool and its
digital curation lab, and KSD personnel, as well as to collaborate
actively as suits research interests.

Qualifications: Candidates should have (or soon have) a Ph.D. in
Information or Library Science, or another relevant field. He or she
must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. The successful candidate
will have strong research background, proven information and project
management skills, demonstrated excellent communication skills through
a record of publication and public presentation, and a strong interest
in advancing digital preservation and data curation through education,
engagement and collaboration. The successful candidate will have an
understanding and demonstrated competency in the following areas:
science data management, qualitative and quantitative research
methods, digital preservation, trusted digital repository workflows,
science metadata standards and inter-operability, and open science.
Demonstrated record of the ability and desire to work in a
multidisciplinary and collaborative environment is also desirable.

To Apply: Interested candidates should send a CV, a brief statement (2
pages maximum) of interest in this position and how it relates to your
personal goals, and a list of 3 references and their contact
information to the project PI, Dr. Ricardo L. Punzalan at
punzalan at umd.edu. Review of applications will begin November 15th,
2014. Selected applicant will be notified no later than mid-December
2014.