Lehigh University

(position filled)

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Lehigh University Library and Technology Services (LTS) offers a two-year CLIR post-doctoral Fellowship for a scholar in the humanities, social sciences or sciences. The Fellow will be a member of several collaborative teams, working with relevant faculty and LTS staff, and in some situations assuming a leadership role. It is anticipated that the Fellow will engage in all three projects outlined below. These projects have been developed to further current goals of the organization, while offering a rich and varied experience for the Fellow.

Environmental History Collections

In collaboration with Lehigh University's Environmental Initiative and Environmental Policy Design Program and Lehigh's Special Collections, the CLIR Fellow will explore means of incorporating aspects of environmental history chronicled in scientific and literary works into the curriculum. Building upon "Environment across the Curriculum", an internal website developed by a Lehigh University graduate student for faculty and staff at Lehigh to serve as a clearinghouse of environmental teaching resources for the Lehigh community, the CLIR Fellow will conduct a survey of historical resources with an emphasis on Special Collections holdings relevant to this theme. The Fellow will begin by synthesizing these resources into a cohesive exhibition to take place in the historic and newly renovated Linderman Library. The Fellow will work to engage faculty and students in the project through development of associated public programs and publications. Lehigh's Special Collections holds relevant material in its travel and exploration, natural history, and literary collections. The Fellow will have the opportunity to analyze these areas, as well as to delve deeply into Lehigh's rich collections to ferret out additional resources.

Institutional Repository—Assessment of Needs

The CLIR fellow will investigate the needs of Lehigh scholars for the serving and archiving of unpublished research materials in the social sciences and the humanities, with possible extension to the sciences. Material types to be considered in the survey might encompass data sets cited in publications; preprints and unpublished conference papers; video and audio materials, produced by both faculty and students. The Fellow will learn about successful repository programs at institutions of similar size and complexity, and make recommendations about design and organization. A program for encouraging faculty and researcher participation will be developed.

TRAC (Technology, Research, and Communication) Writing Fellows Program

The TRAC Writing Fellows Program, new in 2008–2009, is a discipline-specific, peer-tutoring initiative of Library and Technology Services designed to help integrate writing, the information and research process, instructional technology, and related learning skills into courses across Lehigh's undergraduate curriculum. The fellows are talented undergraduate students selected from across the disciplines. In their first semester in the program, all new fellows enroll in the TRAC Writing Fellows Seminar, a rigorous, team-taught, four-credit course that prepares them for working with both faculty and students. The TRAC Fellows Program emphasizes cross-disciplinary teamwork and collaboration as an innovative approach to integrating principal goals of LTS (writing and other forms of communication, information literacy, effective use of instructional technologies, and faculty development) thoroughly into the undergraduate culture at Lehigh.

The fall 2008 inaugural semester of the program was a substantial success in terms of (1) the response faculty and students in courses that used TRAC Fellows (ten courses from across all three undergraduate colleges); (2) the team-taught fellows training seminar; (3) collaboration among LTS personnel; and (4) support from the university administration.

The distinctive innovative feature of the TRAC program is its inclusion of both library research and instructional technology into the traditional writing fellows concept. A CLIR Fellow could contribute substantially to our efforts by focusing on this particular feature through (1) assisting TRAC Fellows with their training and work in this area; (2) monitoring progress and collecting data (this information will contribute to both program planning and assessment); and (3) exploring ways to enhance and leverage the integration of writing, library research, and instructional technology.

Further Experiences

The relative focus on and time allocation to the three primary projects will depend on the background and interests of the Fellow and evolving institutional priorities. The Fellow will also have the opportunity to attend relevant conferences, and to learn about various operations and services within Library and Technology Services. There will be discussion of issues in digital and print scholarly communication. It is anticipated that the Fellow will share his or her own research interests with the University community. Lehigh University hosted two highly successful CLIR fellowships in 2004–2005 and 2007–2008.

About Lehigh's Libraries: The Lehigh University library collection comprises over one million volumes and subscriptions to more than 12,000 periodicals, most of them in electronic format. Lehigh's impressive collection of rare books includes Darwin's Origin of Species and James John Audubon's four-volume elephant folio edition of Birds of America. Digital library projects highlight various aspects of the collection, ranging from "Digital Bridges" (19th century bridge construction) to "The Vault at Pfaff's" (celebrating Walt Whitman). In addition, Special Collections holds archival collections that focus on industrial and regional history.

There are two major library facilities, the Fairchild-Martindale Library and the Linderman Library. In 2007, the university reopened the renovated Linderman Library as a laboratory and showcase for humanities programs and collections, as well as an intellectual center for the campus at large.

A merged organization, Library and Technology Services (LTS), delivers computing, library, media, instructional technology, faculty development and distance education services. This collaborative environment affords a unique opportunity to combine extensive print and digital resources, sophisticated information technologies and pedagogical expertise to enhance teaching, learning and research. LTS has been a leader in innovative digital library projects.

In this team-based organization, the Fellow will have opportunities to interact with staff at all levels and in all LTS functional areas. The Fellow will also work with faculty engaged in exploring teaching technologies, creating digital libraries, and enhancing student information literacy.

About Lehigh University: Founded in 1865, Lehigh University (www.lehigh.edu) is a private research institution with over 4,500 undergraduates and 2,000 graduate students. Lehigh University's picturesque 1600-acre wooded campus is located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (pop. 75,000), in the center of the Lehigh Valley (pop. 600,000+), conveniently located near New York City (75 miles) and Philadelphia (50 miles).

Salary: $40,000 annually, plus standard benefits.

Contact Person: Pamela Steigerwalt, Lehigh University, Library and Technology Services, 8A - Fairchild-Martindale Library, Bethlehem, PA 18015 or pss2@lehigh.edu.