Systems Programmer/Analyst

Description

The University of Michigan Library, one of the largest academic research libraries in the world, leads the re-imagining of the research library in the digital era. We are transforming the way libraries organize, preserve, and share access to knowledge. Our seminal role in building digital library systems enabled the creation of HathiTrust, one of the world's biggest digital libraries with over 80 participating institutions and over 11 million digitized books.

Library Information Technology is the technology core of the U-M Library. We build tools to help researchers find information in a vast array of online resources; we built the systems and processes that underlie HathiTrust; we coordinate electronic publishing and data archiving initiatives; and we support the traditional library services users rely on, such as book circulation and collection management.

Core Services, a part of Library IT, supports these projects with the application, server, and storage infrastructure required for hosting web applications and processing digital library data and metadata. Projects in Core Services include (for example) large-scale automated validation and archiving, storage management, and access control and identity management. We operate a growing Linux server infrastructure consisting of approximately 50 servers and over 1.5 PB of storage spread across three data centers.

The Bentley Historical Library serves as the official archives of the University of Michigan and also documents the history of the state and the activities of its people, organizations, and voluntary associations. Although administratively separate from the U-M Library system, the two units collaborate on a regular basis. The Bentley has amassed extensive holdings on the history of the state and the university, including more than 50,000 linear feet of archives and manuscripts, 90,000 printed volumes, 1.5 million photographs and other visual materials, over 10,000 maps, and nearly 20 terabytes of digital content. The digital content - much of it in need of proper treatment for archiving - includes literary materials, video footage of cultural events, oral histories, musical recordings, congressional papers, the administrative and historical records of the University of Michigan and its athletic department, and much more.

Responsibilities*
Library IT Core Services is looking for a talented, resourceful systems programmer to develop an end-to-end digital archiving workflow for the Bentley Historical Library that incorporates two popular open-source software packages, Archivematica and ArchivesSpace.

The focus of the position, approximately 75-80%, will be to install, customize, and integrate these tools, building a reliable and efficient process for staff to prepare archival content for deposit into the U-M Library's existing Deep Blue service, built on the popular DSpace system. This will involve working closely with staff at the Bentley to understand the different types of archival material, how they are best organized and described, and how the two systems can be made to work together and be fitted to DSpace. Both Archivematica and ArchivesSpace are active open-source projects with communities interested in incorporating the results of this work, so development will often be collaborative with colleagues at other universities.

Secondary tasks will be shared with others in Core Services and will include, for example, web server configuration, other miscellaneous development, system troubleshooting, preparing documentation, and monitoring technology trends.

Required Qualifications*
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent experience; 3 to 5 years experience relevant to job duties; experience and comfort with working in groups; demonstrated programming skills in a modern programming language; strong analytical and troubleshooting skills; excellent written and verbal communication; ability to work well in a multicultural and collaborative environment.

Desired Qualifications*
Demonstrated experience in the configuration, customization, and tuning of Linux-based environments; demonstrated experience with NAS and SAN storage systems.