Digital Humanities Developer, Library Information Technology -  Georgetown University Main Campus

Description

Located in a historic neighborhood in the nation's capital, Georgetown offers rigorous academic programs, a global perspective, exciting ways to take advantage of Washington, D.C., and a commitment to social justice. Our community is a tight knit group of remarkable individuals interested in intellectual inquiry and making a difference in the world.

Requirements

Reporting to the Head of Library Information Technology (LIT), the Digital Humanities Developer works closely with information professionals and technologists in the Library to provide expert consultation and support for faculty and students as they seek innovative approaches to posing and addressing scholarly questions. As a member of the Library’s team supporting digitally-enabled scholarship, the Digital Humanities Developer makes use of a wide range of existing tools and methods and takes a lead role in the design and development of digital humanities projects, collaborating with Library colleagues to deploy, modify, maintain, and coordinate digital projects on a variety of digital publishing platforms.

The Developer builds and implements front-end web designs and sites, while also appropriately integrating them with back-end applications. In addition, the Developer assists with activities in support of database development, enhancing and customizing database applications that will result in sustainable, generalize digital applications to support and advance research solutions.

Duties include but are not limited to:

Project Conceptualization and Design

• Works collaboratively with researchers and staff to imagine, design, and implement options for digital investigations of humanities data.
• In collaboration with others, determines the most effective approach to meet agreed-upon requirements by adapting and extending existing open source software across a variety of platforms, frameworks, and languages and also determines when customized applications are needed.

Digital Humanities Application Development

• Takes a lead role in the design and development of digital applications to support humanities research initiatives.
• In collaboration with other technology experts in the Library, builds applications that enable researchers to collect, manage, produce, manipulate, or analyze humanities data. 
• Writes original code; tests and improves existing code.

Front-end Web Development and Design

• Designs, develops, and maintains custom web-based applications and other user-facing applications.
• Prototypes and tests interactive designs on digital publishing or web platforms.

Database Development

• Enhances and customizes database applications for optimal data acquisition, maintenance, and extraction of information according to application requirements and specifications.
• Assists with building data structures and semantic queries and leading them to full implementation.
• Collaborates in the development and improvement of workflows and methods that can be utilized in analyzing and showcasing humanities data in interactive formats online.

Library Contributions and Professional Development

• As appropriate, serves on library and university-wide committees and task forces; participates in local consortia and regional and national associations. 
• Regularly contributes to the profession through writing for publication and/or active involvement in professional associations at the national or regional levels.
• Continually acquires new knowledge and updates skills to enhance professional performance in all areas of responsibility. 
• Keeps abreast of developments, trends and issues in the library and digital humanities field.
• Monitors trends and maintains currency in emerging issues and tools within areas of expertise.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (minimum), with preference for degree in computer or information science.
• 2-3 years of related work experience, with technology skills demonstrated in an accessible portfolio of work.
• Proficiency in one or more programming and scripting languages (Java, Python, Ruby, etc.) and web services stacks. Experience with a version control system such as Git.
• Web development (HTML, JavaScript, CSS), design, and publishing skills, including skills in customizing and developing solutions in one or more of the following platforms: Drupal, Wordpress, Omeka, Scalar.
• Proficiency in developing simple to complex data structures (RDF, JSON-LD, N3, Turtle, etc.) and constructing queries (SQL).
• Understanding of the research process and knowledge of the ways that new technologies are affecting the production of scholarship in the humanities. Ability to understand and translate researchers' project goals into web-based, computational requirements.
• Ability to function as part of an interactive team while demonstrating self-initiative to achieve project goals and meet deadlines.
• Ability to manage projects and coordinate with team members from across the library and with different reporting lines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with humanities research.
• Experience or familiarity with software used in a variety of digital scholarship activities.
• Experience working on and contributing to open source software projects.
• Domain knowledge of advanced text mining including natural language processing.
• Information and data visualization -- front-end development using javascript, CSS, and visualization formats like SVG. Comfortable with a variety of JavaScript frameworks and libraries such as d3.js.
• Experience with modern web application frameworks (React, Jekyll, Gatsby or similar, Rails).