Empire State Digital Network Technology Specialist

Description

Located in New York City, the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) is a nonprofit member services organization serving more than 260 libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage nonprofits in New York City and Westchester County. METRO has an almost 50-year tradition of providing a range of programs and services to its members, including grants, consultative and digital services, collaborative initiatives, and professional development and training. We are seeking an enthusiastic, dedicated individual to manage Empire State Digital Network (ESDN), a statewide initiative to deliver content from New York’s cultural heritage institutions to the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).

POSITION OVERVIEW:
The ESDN Technology Specialist is a full-time, newly created position for one year with the possibility of extension. This position is open to early-career and experienced information professionals. Candidates should be enthusiastic about supporting expanded access to digital collections from New York libraries, archives and cultural heritage institutions via the DPLA.

In coordination with the ESDN Manager and Metadata Specialist, the Technology Specialist will participate in the implementation of key technologies to meet ESDN program objectives. This person will focus on developing the technical processes necessary to accomplish required data manipulation and transformations. The Technology Specialist will configure open-source tools and will develop custom programming solutions to streamline project workflows as needed. Creativity, flexibility and the ability to experiment and invent will be essential.

IF YOU FILL THIS POSITION, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO:

• Work as a flexible member of a small, highly-collaborative team.
• Configure REPOX and other ingest, harvest, and data normalization tools for ESDN project needs. 
• Work closely with ESDN Manager and Metadata Specialist to write and apply XSLT data transformations according to defined project specifications.
• Select, configure and manage technology solutions for data normalization tasks as needed.
• Provide programming and technical support for all components of multiple ESDN workflows.
• Envision, develop and implement custom programming solutions to streamline data ingest, remediation, and transformation processes as needed.
• Work closely with METRO Digital Services Manager to provide technical support for METRO administered collections in Fedora/Islandora as needed.

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE WILL HAVE:

• Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science or a related degree.
• Experience working in a library, archive or cultural heritage organization, or affiliated educational, non-profit, or professional organization.
• Experience with standard software and web application development tools and programming languages and technologies including JavaScript, Python, JSON, and Ruby.
• Strong working knowledge of XML, XPath/XQuery, and XSLT required.
• Knowledge of library practices and data formats including XML, OAI-PMH, MODS, MARC, and Dublin Core.
• Experience installing and configuring open-source software tools relevant to LAMs digital collections and specifically to databases and repositories.
• Ability to administer PHP/MySQL applications.
• Experience working with version control systems.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work well in a highly collaborative, team-oriented environment.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.

POSITION DETAILS:
This position will remain open until filled. The ESDN Technology Specialist works in collaboration with the ESDN Manager and Technology Specialist. The salary range is $60,000-70,000, commensurate with skills and experience. METRO provides excellent benefits, pension, and leave package. Position may entail four-day, 35-hour workweek. METRO’s offices are located at 57 E. 11th Street in New York City. Remote employment within the mid-Atlantic region will be considered.

APPLICATION DETAILS:
The application period ends May 30th, 2014. Please send a resume or cv and a cover letter as a PDF attachment to info@metro.org with “ESDN Technology Specialist” in the subject line. No phone calls please.