Digital Library Applications Developer

Description

Grinnell College seeks a creative digital library applications developer to help build its campus-wide digital library program, Digital Grinnell. Digital Grinnell is devoted to making scholarly, artistic, historical and curricular materials from the College freely available to the public, now and in the future. The Digital Library Applications Developer will administer existing open-source software applications and develop new tools to leverage digital library content to meet curricular and curatorial goals, including developing custom collection displays or applications using materials in the College's digital asset management system and institutional repository. S/he will also assist in managing and coordinating digitization of materials in various formats, from 35mm slides to oversized medieval manuscripts, using international standards and best practices in digitization and digital preservation. S/he will interact and collaborate closely with staff in Curricular Technology, Information Technology, Faulconer Gallery, the Visual Resources curator, and the Libraries during development of applications. Reporting to the Libraries' Discovery and Integrated Systems Librarian, the position will also devote ca. 10% of its time to supporting curricular technology projects through the use of APIs and other web-related development.

Responsibilities include:

• creating customized displays of the materials in the Digital Grinnell repository system, as defined by faculty, curators, librarians, and curricular technologists, for teaching, exhibition, and communication;
• participating in the creation of digital content in a variety of formats for the system;
• sharing in the training of students and other staff for creating content, entering and reviewing metadata, and troubleshooting;
• serving as a technical contact for DiscoveryGarden and other vendors;
• creating local documentation;
• supporting other curricular technology development (10%, under supervision of the Senior Curricular Technology Specialist).

Technical Environment
Digital Grinnell operates on open-source software running on a LAMP stack. Specific applications in the Digital Grinnell environment include the following:

• Islandora (a Drupal front end over a Fedora repository)
• Open Journal Systems
• Open Conference Systems
• Madison Digital Image Database (MDID)
• (Proposed) A new Islandora-based digital image system to replace MDID
• (In development) VuFind, as a portal to content housed in these and other systems

Digital Grinnell interacts with a mix of open-source and closed-source systems, including the College's Drupal Web site, Blackboard, and Innovative Interface's Sierra integrated library system.

Organizational Environment
The Grinnell College Libraries, 2011 winner in the College Library category of the Excellence in Academic Libraries Award of the Association of College and Research Libraries, is a highly collaborative organization based on four overlapping functional clusters, with leadership of each cluster shared by small teams of librarians and staff. The Libraries work closely with Information Technology Services, Curricular Technology, the Faulconer Gallery (the College's art museum), the Visual Resources curator, the Dean's Office, and other campus units concerned with creation and curation of collections and technologies for learning, teaching, and communication.

Skills and Requirements

We require the following skills (or background that will allow a candidate to develop these skills quickly and effectively): Drupal, XML, PHP, CSS, Javascript, Fedora, metadata schema, and relational databases (e.g., MySQL, Postgres, Oracle). In addition, we expect this person to coordinate and communicate with other staff effectively and pro-actively.

Application Process:  To be considered for this position, please submit applications online by visiting our employment website at https://jobs.grinnell.edu.  Applicants must complete the online application and attach a cover letter, resume, and a list of references.  This position will remain open until filled.  Please contact the Office of Human Resources at (641) 269-4818 with questions.