Purdue University

*Note: This position has been filled.

Purdue University Libraries is offering three possible positions for a CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Fellow:

Candidates can apply for any one of the positions; Purdue will award only one Fellowship this year, to the candidate best matching the qualifications for one of these positions. Applicants interested in applying for a fellowship at Purdue University must indicate in their Letter of Interest which of the three positions below they are most interested in and outline their qualifications for that position.

Position 1: Purdue University Libraries CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship on the Role and Impact of Technology on Knowledge Creation

The Purdue University Libraries offer a two-year CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries. The focus of the fellowship will be to explore the role and impact of technology on knowledge creation. In particular, how does data presentation and visualization influence how society and culture form opinions about the world around us, and what new literacies emerge around new information technologies? The Fellow will collaborate with faculty in the Colleges of Engineering and Technology as well as the Libraries to investigate these research questions. The Fellow will also interact with Purdue library faculty to provide instruction in and development of library services around the concepts of visual literacy and develop a visual literacy program for the Libraries as a part of its information literacy program.

Duties will include:

Developing and teaching a visual literacy course in collaboration with faculty in the Department of Computer Graphics Technology
Developing media literacy modules that Libraries faculty can integrate into their information literacy instruction
Collaborating on existing and future sponsored research projects to determine the influence of data presentation and organization on the construction of knowledge and patterns of use of data repository resources
Exploring how PURR, Purdue’s data institutional repository, can use data presentation and visualization tools to improve its usability and effectiveness

Required Qualification: a PhD in science and technology studies, information literacy, visual culture, information science, human-computer interaction, or a related field.

Desired Qualification: Interest in and experience with technology and culture and/or data visualization techniques; ability to work closely with researchers; excellent project management and interpersonal communication skills; ability to work both independently and with groups.

Position 2: Purdue University Libraries CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Geographical Information Systems (GIS).

The Purdue University Libraries offer a two-year CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries. The focus of the fellowship will be to develop information delivery and visualization tools and instruction in support of the data services and information literacy missions of the Libraries. The Fellow will work with the Libraries’ GIS Information Specialist to develop instructional programs for users across campus, including the development and delivery of seminars or workshops, as well as the refinement and delivery of an upper-undergraduate/graduate-level Geoinformatics course. The Fellow will also work with the GIS Specialist to refine existing or develop new open-source geoinformatics resources in collaboration with faculty in the Colleges of Agriculture, Science, Engineering and Technology. For example, Purdue’s Libraries-developed open-source spatial data access catalog, Map And Data Access at Purdue (MADA@P), acts not only as a query/download tool but also as a component in various geospatial projects on campus. Designed primarily to fulfill the most common requests for geospatial data we receive at Purdue Libraries, it also stores or indexes several valuable Purdue-generated datasets.

Duties will include:

Collaborate on teaching Geoinformatics course for advanced undergraduates/beginning graduate students
Collaborate on improvements/refinement to MADA@P http://geo.lib.purdue.edu/about/
Provide training and education around MADA@P to the campus community and beyond
Provide leadership for GIS Day on Purdue’s campus
Collaborate with disciplinary faculty to integrate geospatial components in their research
Explore possibilities for integrating a spatial data/metadata component in PURR, Purdue’s institutional data repository.

Required Qualification: A PhD in a science or technology field with experience in information visualization, geographical information systems, or related areas.

Desired Qualifications: Ability to work closely with researchers; excellent project management and interpersonal communication skills; ability to work both independently and with groups.

Position 3: Purdue University Libraries CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Scientific Data Management

The Purdue University Libraries offer a two-year CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship in Academic Libraries. The focus of the fellowship will be to address the need for sound data management practice in one or more science areas, (e.g., agricultural and biological sciences, chemistry, physics, environmental sciences, etc.), working closely with departmental researchers and Libraries faculty. The Libraries CLIR Fellow will investigate practices in research data management and resulting effects on organizing and disseminating research data to make it publicly accessible. This work seeks to better model scientific workflow and practices that facilitate or impede data sharing. Outcomes may include recommendations for practice, design of tools, or development of frameworks for sharing, possibly including multiple STEM-related areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Duties will include:

Working closely with researchers to understand how their research data are organized, disseminated and used/reused
Utilizing the Data Curation Profile Toolkit to assess data workflow requirements
Learning to use the Purdue University Research Repository to assist researchers “publishing” data collections
Working closely with Libraries faculty to design tutorials or curriculum to develop best practices in data management for graduate students

Required Qualifications include a PhD in a STEM discipline; ability to work closely with researchers; excellent project management and interpersonal communication skills; ability to work both independently and with groups.

Desired Qualifications include an interest in data organization and dissemination; demonstrated experience conducting observational study or ethnographic research

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The Purdue University Libraries system includes the divisions of Archives and Special Collections (ASC); Health and Life Sciences (HLS); Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, and Business (HSSEB); and Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PSET). The strength of the Purdue Libraries reflects the core strengths of the University – agriculture, engineering and science and the professional schools of business, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine. Purdue Libraries faculty collaborates with disciplinary faculty to explore and develop approaches for discovering, accessing, and sharing of data. Purdue Libraries is a co-developer of the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), along with the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) and Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP). The Libraries international leadership as founding member of DataCite, allows assigning Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to datasets for attribution and discovery. The Libraries Data Curation Profile is an instrument which can be used to gather information about, and help understand data management needs of the researcher.