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DigiPal Developer Job Vacancy

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A new vacancy has come up on the DigiPal team. Our developer, Stephan Hügel, has received a fully funded PhD studentship and so is no longer available to work on the project. We are delighted to see Stephan go on to such a good position, although we are also very sorry that he is leaving us and, of course, appreciate all that he has done. As a result, we are now looking to appoint a replacement.

The position is for 18 months but is otherwise essentially unchanged from before, so do have a look at my earlier blog post on 'Further Details about the Vacancy'. In short, we're looking for a motivated developer with Python (ideally Django) and relational database skills, preferably also with knowledge of JavaScript/JQuery and AJAX and an interest in interface design, data modelling and medieval manuscripts. You will be working closely with the existing DigiPal team as the principal developer and will be responsible for most of the development work in practice.

The appointment is for 100% (full time) and you will be based in the Department of Digital Humanities at King’s College London but dedicated to the DigiPal project alone (for which see these pages, particularly the About section and the Outcomes page). Applications close on 1 January 2013, with interviews planned for soon after that. We are looking for an immediate start, though of course we understand that you may have other commitments. As mentioned, the formal contract is 18 months, but an extension to 30 September 2014 is very likely in practice.

Full details of the appointment are available from the King’s Vacancies page. For further questions or informal discussion do please get in touch with me directly.

I look forward to receiving your application!


Job Vacancy: Medieval Manuscripts Specialist

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Cambridge University Library is looking for a specialist in medieval manuscripts with a digital component. This, of course, has no connection at all to the DigiPal project, but I thought it would still be of interest to readers of the blog. Quoting from the online job description,

The successful candidate will lead the development of high quality reader-focussed services to support scholarship on the manuscripts, promoting them to the research community at local, national and international level. He/she with deal with all aspects of the care and administration of medieval manuscripts and will be outward-looking in developing innovative digital services alongside traditional methods to support the University in its teaching, learning and research and to make the medieval manuscripts accessible to the widest possible audience. He/she will have the necessary skills and enthusiasm to exploit the opportunities created by the Cambridge Digital Library (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk) and to take a leading part in planning and implementing a new online catalogue of medieval manuscripts.

The closing date is 18 March 2013, and further details are available from http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/-26632/.

Job Vacancy: Digital Medieval Manuscripts Fellow

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Another vacancy has come up for work with medieval manuscripts in a digital context. Again, this is not part of the DigiPal project at all, although it does involve working with people who are connected to DigiPal (Elaine Treharne is on this project's Advisory Board, and we have also been actively supported by Stanford Digital Libraries, particularly in the use of digital images).

There is quite a lot of detail on the relevant web page, but quoting some extracts:

This position will help anchor and accelerate the efforts for building a network of digital medieval manuscript repositories. Specifically, the Fellow will apply and test the methods and technologies being developed in SUL’s interoperable initiatives (see http://lib.stanford.edu/dmm), focusing on Stanford’s growing corpus of medieval resources, faculty research and pedagogical objectives, and his/her own field of expertise. This includes curating data sets by identifying, aggregating, transforming and integrating resources from multiple sources. The Fellow will also play an integral role in helping develop and enhance technologies to visualize, analyze and annotate manuscripts. S/he will work directly with software engineering teams at Stanford and beyond to specify, test and document emerging tools and services.  The Fellow will bring an understanding of research and pedagogical methodologies in medieval studies to enhance the technical work and digital resource development being done within the Libraries.

...

This position will work jointly across the Stanford University Libraries and the English Department in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Within SUL, it will be supervised by SUL’s Digital Medieval Manuscripts Program Manager. The position will also be an integral part of the Digital Manuscripts Technical Council, an international panel of technologists from some of the world’s leading research libraries that is cooperatively defining the technical landscape for manuscript studies. Within the Department of English, the Fellow will be engaged with Professor Elaine Treharne, focused on the theoretical and practical aspects of new methodologies for manuscript studies.

Apparently applications will be accepted until the post is filled, but 'review of applications is already underway'. Further details are available from http://www.clir.org/fellowships/postdoc/applicants/stanford2013.

Vacancy: Parker Sub-Librarian and Digital Projects Librarian

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The Parker Library at Corpus Christi College is looking for a new Sub-Librarian/Digital Projects Librarian, as the current post-holder, Dr Suzanne Paul, is now moving on. Quoting from the job description:

The Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge is seeking an experienced and reliable Sub Librarian and Digital Projects Librarian. The postholder will be jointly responsible (with the other Sub Librarian) for the day to day management of its world-class collection of medieval manuscripts and rare books (60%) and will also take responsibility for the library’s contribution to Parker on the Web (40%). The two positions are offered as a single full-time post.

Sub Librarian duties include supervising readers, dealing with bibliographical enquiries and image requests, and conducting talks and guided tours of the library for both academic visitors and the general public. Experience of working in an academic or specialist library is essential, as is an understanding of the care and handling of rare books and manuscripts. Relevant research experience and knowledge of medieval languages and palaeography would be an advantage. Public engagement is an important aspect of the role and the Sub Librarian requires excellent verbal and written abilities to promote the library and its collections to a variety of audiences, in person, in print and via social media. Experience of modern book cataloguing using AACR2 and MARC 21, preferably using the Voyager management system would also be desirable.

As Digital Projects Librarian (40%), the postholder will be responsible for updating and developing Parker on the Web, working in close collaboration with the colleagues at Stanford University and Harrassowitz. Excellent IT skills are essential, particularly in the use of XML and databases, as well as a good awareness of new developments in digital humanities with potential relevance to Parker on the Web.

These two positions are offered as a single full-time post. The Sub Librarian (60%) role is a permanent one and the Digital Projects Librarian (40%) is a fixed term post, guaranteed initially until September 2016.

In return, you will receive a very competitive salary, excellent benefits and conditions of employment, including a pension scheme, generous holiday entitlement, car parking and use of College facilities.

The brief description is online at http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/vacancies/ (you will need to scroll down quite a long way), and the full Job Description/Person Specification is at http://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/old/Sub-Librarian-Job-Description-April-2013.docx.

Needless to say this has nothing to do with the DigiPal project, although we have benefited directly from the Parker Library and its partners in their digitisation program, Stanford University and Harrasowitz, through the generous permission to use their images for our project (for which see here). I can also testify that the library has an extraordinary collection of manuscripts and is a very nice place to work!

PhD Scholarship in Palaeography and Manuscript Studies

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A PhD scholarship in palaeography and manuscript studies at King's College London has just been announced for 2013/14. This is not funded by DigiPal but it could certainly involve a project relevant to DigiPal or using the DigiPal framework. 

The full description is below; for further information please contact Julia Crick, Professor of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies. I would also be happy to discuss any possible project as well.

 

At: King’s College LondonWC2R 2LS

2013/14 PhD programme in Palaeography and Manuscript Studies, King’s College London.

Deadline for applications: 1st July 2013.

To apply: CV, 600-word research proposal, academic transcript, sent to Michael.Broderick@kcl.ac.uk.

Applications are now being accepted for a PhD scholarship (value £24,500 to cover fees with the balance payable as a stipend in 12 equal monthly instalments; tenable for a three-year period) to be awarded competitively to a suitably qualified candidate. The applicant will be completing or have completed a Master’s level qualification, will have knowledge of Latin or at least one medieval language, and must have developed a research proposal relating to some aspect of medieval manuscripts and palaeography. Research students in King’s have access to advanced Latin and palaeography training, although it is expected that the successful candidate will have already gained experience of both disciplines.

London boasts unrivalled collections of Western manuscripts, in private as well as public hands, a large concentration of experts on medieval palaeography, numerous research seminars, including the London Palaeography seminar, and the extensive resources of the Senate House Palaeography Room as well as the British Library Manuscripts Reading Room. Postgraduate students at King’s belong to the Centre for Late Antique and Medieval Studies, one of the best-established interdisciplinary centres of its kind in the country, which brings together international scholars working at the forefront of their disciplines, as well as visiting academics from overseas.

Students within Palaeography and Manuscript Studies have the opportunity of co-supervision in a discipline appropriate to their research interests: Classics and Hellenic Studies, Digital Humanities, History, Literature (English, French, German, Occitan, Spanish), Music, or Theology and Religious Studies. Current major research projects hosted at King’s which involve the study of medieval manuscripts include Digipal, Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript, Medieval Francophone Literature outside France.

For further information please contact Julia Crick, Professor of Palaeography and Manuscript Studies (Julia.Crick@kcl.ac.uk)

12 Studentships/Early Career Fellowships in Digital Scholarly Editing

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No fewer than twelve Marie Curie fellowships for early stage researchers are now available – including one in palaeography – as part of the new DiXiT international network on Digital Scholarly Editing. These are intended to fund people beginning PhDs in relevant topics, but others are also eligible to apply. DiXiT has no direct connection to DigiPal, but one of the twelve fellowships is specifically for study of digital methods in palaeography: the successful candidate will be supervised by Dr Georg Vogeler in Graz but will spend some time with us at the Department of Digital Humanities in King's College London where DigiPal is based.

Here is the official announcement in full:

The Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT) offers 12 Marie Curie fellowships to early stage researchers (ESRs) for a period of 3 years and 5 Marie Curie fellowships to experienced researchers (ERs) for a period of 12 to 20 months.

Fellowships are now open for applications. For details visit http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/fellows.html

Please circulate widely!

About DiXiT

DiXiT (Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network) is an international network of high-profile institutions from the public and the private sector that are actively involved in the creation and publication of digital scholarly editions.

DiXiT offers a coordinated training and research programme for early stage researchers and experienced researchers in the multi-disciplinary skills, technologies, theories, and methods of digital scholarly editing.

DiXiT is funded under Marie Curie Actions within the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme and runs from September 2013 until August 2017.

For more information visit the DiXiT website: http://dixit.uni-koeln.de

APPLICATION

Academic Requirements

Early-Stage Researchers must be in the first 4 years of their research careers and not yet have a doctoral degree. This is measured from the date when they obtained the degree which would formally entitle them to embark on a doctorate, irrespective of whether or not a doctorate is envisaged.

Experienced Researchers must be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least 4 years of full-time equivalent research experience. At the time of recruitment by the host organisation an experienced researcher must also have less than 5 years of full-time equivalent research experience.

It should be noted that an individual researcher may not be recruited first as an ESR and subsequently as an ER in the same project.

Marie Curie ITN mobility requirement

Researchers can be of any nationality. They are required to undertake trans-national mobility (i.e. move from one country to another) when taking up their appointment. One general rule applies to the appointment of researchers:

At the time of recruitment by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date.

Short stays such as holidays and/or compulsory national service are not taken into account.

Application process

Please note that applications from any qualified applicants, regardless of gender, ethnicity or country of origin are welcome if they meet the eligibility requirements.

Applicants should send their applications directly to the institution hosting the desired fellowship. Applications for more than one post are welcome – however, multiple applications should be indicated via the obligatory DiXiT application form (which has to be submitted separately from the application documents send to the hosting institution).

Application deadline

The deadline for applications is the 10th December 2013.

Please note that the four remaining ER fellowships will start at a later date and the possibility of application will be announced accordingly.

For further details visit http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/fellows.html

Vacancy: Palaeography and Digital Scholarly Editions, Early Stage Researcher

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I noted in a previous post that twelve positions in digital scholarly editions are now available, including one in palaeography in the University of Graz with Dr Georg Vogeler. Further information about that specific position is now available from a flier on the DiXiT website. Please remember once again that this is independent of the DigiPal project, so please do not contact us but contact Dr Vogeler instead. However, the successful applicant will spend 8–12 months with us here at the Department of Digital Humanities in King's College London.

The full announcement is reproduced here:

The Centre for Information Modeling - Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities at the University of Graz (Austria) is offering a position for an

Early Stage Researcher “Paleography and Digital Scholarly Editions”

40 hours/week; fixed-term employment for the period of 3 years, starting 1 April 2014.

Job Specifications

  • The research fellow will do supervised research on “Paleography and Digital Scholarly Editions” in the Marie Curie Initial Training Network “DiXiT”.
  • She/He will evaluate the role of digital facsimiles and text/image-linkage for modeling transcription methodologies in the context of digital scholarly editions.
  • She/he will study the potential of these methodologies for analysis in paleographical and codicological research and do exemplary paleographical research with selected digital scholarly editions.

Professional Qualifications

  • Relevant university degree (Master-level), preferably in the Humanities.
  • Prior experience with scholarly editing / paleography OR knowledge of data modeling / annotation methods and practices (e.g. TEI)
  • Ability to present the subject in English (spoken and written).
  • High level of commitment and motivation for scientific work and international collaboration.

Formal Requirements

This position is funded through the Digital Scholarly Editions Initial Training Network (DiXiT). To download the mandatory Application Form, visit http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/fellows.html.
Note that applicants must

  • ... be in the first four years of their research careers and not yet have a doctoral degree.
  • ... not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the country of their host organization (i.e. Austria) for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date.
  • ... be willing to spend 8-12 months of their tenure at our partner institution, the Department for Digital Humanities at King’s College London (UK). 

Application Deadline: 10 December, 2013

Send your application, including a letter of intent and CV, by mail or e-mail to: zim@uni-graz.at

Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung
Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities University of Graz
Merangasse 70, A-8010 Graz

The completed Application Form must be sent separately to: dixit-info@uni-koeln.de

For further information see http://dixit.uni-koeln.de/fellows.html or contact the Centre at zim@uni-graz.at or +43 316 380 2292.

Lyell-Bodleian Research Fellowship in Manuscript Studies

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A post-doctoral research fellowship in the Bodleian Library at Oxford has just been announced. Quoting from the vacancy web page:

The Bodleian Libraries, in association with the board of electors to the James PR Lyell Readership in Bibliography, propose to appoint a postdoctoral research fellow in manuscript studies from 1 October 2014, or as soon as possible thereafter, for a fixed-term of 3 years. The Fellowship is offered concurrently with the non-stipendiary Dilts Fellowship at Lincoln College.

The Fellow will undertake research on any aspect of the Canonici collection of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the Bodleian, which is named after their Venetian collector Matteo Luigi Canonici (1727-1805/6). Research proposals will be invited from any area of manuscript specialism, including the study of texts (Latin, Greek, and vernacular), script, decoration and illustration, codicology (including binding), and provenance (including the history of libraries). ...

Only candidates who will have submitted their doctoral theses by the closing date will be considered; proof of submission will be required if a candidate has not been awarded their doctorate by the time of interview. ...

Only applications received online before 12.00 midday on 21 July 2014 can be considered.

For full details, including application forms, see the relevant page on the Oxford recruitment website at <https://www.recruit.ox.ac.uk/...>


Vacancy: Casebooks Project Editor (Research Assistant/Associate)

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Another vacancy has come to my attention for manuscript studies in a digital context. This project concerns a very different time-period and script from that of the DigiPal group, but a familiarity with early-modern handwriting and history is 'desirable', not 'essential', and you could also brush up your early modern script using Cambridge's excellent English Handwriting: An Online Course which focuses exclusively on sixteenth and seventeenth-century hands. The Casebooks group state that their post 'would be an ideal position for a recent graduate planning to pursue a career in history or digital humanities, or a postdoctoral scholar seeking experience working on a major collaborative project'. I have also seen the project demonstrated and it looks very interesting indeed. The full announcement is as follows:

Casebooks Project Editor (Research Assistant/Associate)

Department/Location: Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge

The Department seeks to appoint an Editor to work on The Casebooks Project: A Digital Edition of Simon Forman's and Richard Napier's Medical Records, 1596–1634 (http://www.magicandmedicine.hps.cam.ac.uk).

The Casebooks Project is making one of the most extensive surviving sets of medical records in history publicly available. It combines the highest level of scholarship with cutting-edge digital humanities. Casebooks is directed by Dr Lauren Kassell and has been funded by a series of major awards from the Wellcome Trust.

The successful candidate will join the project team to work full-time transcribing and coding Richard Napier's casebooks. He or she will also contribute to academic, educational and public engagement activities from time to time.

It is essential for candidates to have:

  • an aptitude for detailed, systematic work,
  • the ability to read difficult handwriting, and
  • be capable of working both independently and as part of a team

The following would be desirable:

  • expertise in early modern history, especially the histories of medicine, religion, astrology and the family
  • proficiency in seventeenth-century palaeography
  • at least rudimentary Latin
  • experience of XML and TEI

We will train the successful applicant in the necessary skills to do this work.

This would be an ideal position for a recent graduate planning to pursue a career in history or digital humanities, or a postdoctoral scholar seeking experience working on a major collaborative project.

Once an offer of employment has been accepted, the successful candidate will be required to undergo a health assessment.

Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available until 30 June 2017

Please ensure that you upload the following:

  1. A covering letter, stating why you want to work on Casebooks and what makes you a good candidate for this job
  2. An up-to-date cv, including any publications

Schedule

Closing Date: 11 July 2014
Shortlisting: 16 July 2014
Interviews: 7 August 2014 (videoconferencing will be available where required)
Salary: £24,289-£36,661

For more information about the Casebooks Project: http://www.magicandmedicine.hps.cam.ac.uk and the HPS Department: www.hps.cam.ac.uk.

Any queries should be emailed to hpsjobs@hermes.cam.ac.uk or you can contact us on 01223 334540.

To apply online for this vacancy, please follow this link <http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/4143/> and click on the 'Apply' button at the bottom of the advert. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Please quote reference JN03549 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2015-2016

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Following on from last weeks' announcement regarding the Lyell-Bodleian Research Fellowship in Manuscript Studies, applications are now open for the Munby Fellowship in Bibliography at the University of Cambridge. Quoting from the job advertisement:

Munby Fellowship in Bibliography 2015-2016
Salary Range:£32,590

The Library Syndicate invite applications for the Munby Fellowship in Bibliography for the tenure of 1 October 2015 to 31 July 2016.

The Munby Fellow will be free to pursue bibliographical research of his/her own choosing. It is, however, expected that the Fellow’s research will be, at least in part, based directly or indirectly on the collections of the University and Colleges of Cambridge and likely to be of benefit, in the broadest sense, to scholars using those collections in the future. The Fellow will have no departmental or other staff duties and responsibilities.

The Fellowship is open to graduates in any discipline of any university and nationality. Preference will be given to scholars at post-doctoral or an equivalent level.

The University of Cambridge is committed to equality of opportunity.

The stipend will be £32,590 (pro-rata).

A non-stipendiary Fellowship at Darwin College will normally be available to the successful candidate, if not already a Fellow of a Cambridge College. Fellows in these categories are members of the Governing Body of the College and may take meals in the College without charge.

Applications (one copy only) should reach the Deputy Librarian’s PA, University Library, West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DR, UK by 31 October 2014, and should include the following particulars:

    1. a completed application cover sheet;
    2. a curriculum vitae with a list of principal publications;
    3. a statement of the research proposed.

An election will be made in early January 2015. There are no interviews.

Further particulars are available from http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Vacancies or by contacting the Deputy Librarian’s PA, tel: 01223 333083, email: Charlotte.Ross@lib.cam.ac.uk.

Closing Date: Friday 31 October 2014

Two PhD Studentships on Conqueror's Commissioners Project

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As reported in an earlier post, the DigiPal framework will be extended through a new AHRC grant to start in October 2014. Part of this includes two new PhD studentships, one in palaeography in the Departments of History and of Digital Humanities at King's College London, and one in History at Oxford. The official press release is available from the King's College web page and is reproduced in full here:

AHRC Project Studentships - Unlocking the Domesday Survey

Professor Julia Crick (Department of History, King’s College London), Dr Stephen Baxter (St Peter’s College, Oxford) and Dr Peter Stokes (Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London) have secured funding from the AHRC for a major project called 'The Conqueror’s Commissioners: Unlocking the Domesday Survey of South-Western England' which will record and interrogate the evidence of the Exeter manuscript of Domesday Book, a unique witness to governmental processes and the locality of south-western England in the reign of William I. The project coincides with the historic disbinding of Exon Domesday and its aim is to publish the contents of the manuscript for the first time and to examine the evidence which the book contains for the conduct of the Domesday survey at both local and central level.

Two project studentships have been funded by the AHRC. Both students will have the benefit of working alongside an interdisciplinary project team, with access to project images, findings and data as they become available; they will be asked to contribute to the production of research reports, conference papers and publications and to present information on research progress and outcomes to supervising bodies.

  1. The first studentship will be held at King’s College London. The successful candidate will consider the palaeography of the book in its wider context, looking at script traditions in the locality which the Exon survey covered, investigating connections between record-holding centres in the region and exploring the apparent gulf between local scribal tradition and the hands of Exon Domesday Book. Digital and traditional palaeographical methods will be used. The successful candidate will be based at King’s College London but must have a willingness to travel to archives and libraries elsewhere in search of additional research materials. 
  2. The second studentship will be held at the Faculty of History, University of Oxford:  Dr Baxter, who is to supervise this student, will move from King’s College London to the History Faculty, Oxford, at the start of the new academic year. The successful candidate will develop a research proposal which explores an aspect of governmental, social, political or economic history using the evidence of Exon Domesday.

The deadline for applications for these studentships is 12 August at 12pm.

Further information on the studentships and the project, including how to apply, can be found here.

If you have any queries or require further information about the first studentship please email Professor Julia Crick or Dr Peter Stokes; for information about the second please contact Dr Stephen Baxter in the first instance, or Professor Crick.

One-Year Palaeography Vacancy on Exon Domesday

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As promised in an earlier post, we are now receiving applications for a one-year postdoctoral position on the 'Conqueror's Commissioners' project working on the Exon Domesday book. This is a new AHRC-funded project which will build on the DigiPal framework specifically in the context of the Exon Domesday book. The successful applicant will be employed by King's College London but will be based primarily in Exeter. The full advertisement is available online and is reproduced (with minor editing) below:

Research Associate in the Department of History

Reference: THW/14/059639/103
Salary Details: Grade 6 £32,277
Contract Type: Temporary/Fixed term
Contract Term: Full time

This is a one-year post, contributing to the work of Professor Julia Crick (Department of History, King’s College London), Dr Stephen Baxter (St Peter’s College, Oxford) and Dr Peter Stokes (Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London) in their major AHRC project, The Conqueror’s Commissioners: unlocking the Domesday Survey of South-Western England. The successful candidate will work as part of the project team, will have experience in the palaeography and codicology of medieval manuscripts, and have special responsibility for recording the physical construction of the book.

The successful candidate will have a Ph.D on a relevant topic, good knowledge of codicology and palaeography and a working knowledge of medieval Latin. Candidates willing to make independent palaeographical judgements, with experience in handling medieval manuscripts and familiarity with palaeographical literature will be favoured. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills and the ability to work to deadlines are essential. He/she will be able to work independently and to work as a team.

  • The closing date for receipt of applications is 04 September 2014.
  • Interviews will be held in mid-/late-September tbc.
  • Equality of opportunity is College policy.
  • The appointment will be made at Grade 6, spine point 31, currently £32,277 per annum.
  • Fixed term contract for 12 months.
  • Please note that the post holder will be based in Exeter with frequent travel to King’s London campuses.

Closing date: 04 September 2014

If you have questions about this role, please contact: Professor Julia Crick, Tel: 07969533068, Email: Julia.Crick@kcl.ac.uk

Details of how to apply are available from the official web page. Further information about the project is also available from my earlier blog post, 'A New Phase for DigiPal II'.

Paid Internship in Manuscripts at the British Library

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I have just seen the following advertisement for what looks like an intersting opportunity at the British Library for a recently-finished PhD student. The e-mail that I received describes the post as follows:

The British Library is pleased to be able to offer a paid internship in the Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts section of the Western Heritage Department for a doctoral or post-doctoral student in History, History of Art or other relevant subject.

The intern will be involved in all aspects of the work of the Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts section, including responding to enquiries, providing talks for students and patrons, selecting and presenting manuscripts for display in our exhibition gallery, and cataloguing, thereby gaining insight into various curatorial duties and aspects of collection care.  During the internship at the Library, the intern will enjoy privileged access to printed and manuscript research material, and will work alongside specialists with wide-ranging and varied expertise.

The primary focus of the internship will be to enhance the online Digitised Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/, website by creating and supplementing catalogue entries for medieval manuscripts and accompanying images, and assisting with the Library’s Magna Carta exhibition, working under the supervision of the Lead Curator, Illuminated Manuscripts.

The internship is designed to provide an opportunity for the student to develop research skills and expertise in medieval and Renaissance art and history, and in presenting manuscripts to a range of audiences.

Candidates:

The programme is only open to students who are engaged actively in research towards, or have recently completed a PhD in a subject area relevant to the study of pre-1600 manuscripts who have a right to work in the UK.

Hours of Work/Contract Duration:

  • 36 hours [per week] over normal business hours, full time for nine months.
  • The internship will start on 2nd February 2015 or as soon as relevant security checks have been completed.

Applications are available on the British Library’s website, http://www.bl.uk/careers/index.html.

Closing Date: 18th December 1014

Interview Date: 7th January 2015

The selection process may include questions about the date, origin, and decoration of a particular manuscript to be shown at the interview.

This post has no connection whatsoever to DigiPal or anyone working on the DigiPal project, so please contact the British Library for any questions or further details.

British Library AHRC PhD Studentship on Anglo-Saxon England and the Continent: The Manuscript Evidence

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Full funding for a PhD on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts is now receiving applications. It will be held jointly between the British Library and the University of Leicester, working with Claire Breay and Jo Story. Please note that this has nothing to do with DigiPal, so please contact Jo and not us for further details. Her announcement is as follows:

This full AHRC PhD studentship with the British Library is now open for applications. Please circulate, and encourage students with potential projects to contact me. It is a fantastic opportunity – read on.

NB: Eligibility is for the full stipend is frustratingly restrictive (based on UK residency – but with exceptions), as for all AHRC doctoral grants.

Many thanks – Jo (js73@le.ac.uk)

The British Library and The University of Leicester
PhD Studentship: Anglo-Saxon England and the Continent: the manuscript evidence

The British Library and the University of Leicester are pleased to invite applications for a three-year AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership PhD Studentship, available from 1 October 2015. The project will be supervised by Professor Joanna Story, professor of Early Medieval History at Leicester, and by Dr Claire Breay, Head of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts, at the British Library.

The successful candidate will undertake a thesis on Anglo-Saxon England and the Continent centred on the rich manuscript resources at the British Library. The culture of Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman conquest is highly distinctive, not least through the use of the Old English vernacular as a language of written record; but Anglo-Saxon political, religious, economic, linguistic, literary and artistic history cannot be properly understood without reference to contemporary connections with Europe. These cross-Channel connections were always significant, and are manifest in many different ways in manuscripts preserved at the British Library.

Applicants may propose projects that respond to this theme, and which are centred on British Library manuscripts. Potential projects include: ‘Anglo-Saxon England and Rome’; ‘Networks of Knowledge’; ‘Letters to the English’; Perceptions of the Past in Anglo-Saxon England: continental kinship’; ‘Methods of making’.

This studentship coincides with the three-year period of research and preparation for a major British Library exhibition on the Anglo-Saxons that opens in October 2018, and which explores the history, art, and culture of this period through the medium of extant manuscripts. This offers the student an exceptional opportunity to participate in the development of an international exhibition and the Library expects the student to contribute to related publications (in print and online), public events, and academic conferences.

Person specification

We are seeking a highly promising student who will relish the opportunity of combining academic research with the experience of working as part of a professional team of curators and researchers. This studentship is likely to appeal to individuals with a background in early medieval history, book history, literature, language, or interdisciplinary methods for understanding early medieval material culture. Prior experience of research using early medieval manuscripts will be an advantage, and the successful applicant will demonstrate commensurate skills in relevant languages and palaeography. A commitment to communicating the results of research to a wider public audience is key in the context of the British Library’s exhibition.

Applicants must have a first-class or high upper second-class honours degree (or equivalent qualification) and meet the University’s standard English Language entry requirements. It is expected that applicants will have a related Master’s degree with merit or distinction, or be able to show evidence that they will achieve this by September 2015. 

The studentship is available for full-time study only, and applicants must be able to commence their studies in October 2015.

How to apply

To apply you need to complete the standard University of Leicester online application form here: http://www2.le.ac.uk/study/research/phd/history. In place of the research proposal requested on this form, you should provide a statement of up to 1,000 words on:

  1. How you propose to develop the project theme using the British Library collections
  2. How your education and experience to date has prepared you for this research position, and how you will develop the opportunities offered by the 2018 exhibition.

Applicants should also submit:

  1. A 4–5,000 word sample of their written work

Eligibility

The successful candidate must meet Research Council eligibility criteria based on UK residency. See paragraphs 42-44 on pp. 11-12 of the RCUK Terms and Conditions for Postgraduate training grants: 
http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUK-prod/assets/documents/documents/TermsConditionsTrainingGrants.pdf

Informal Enquiries

Informal enquiries relating to potential research projects or eligibility should be sent to Professor Jo Story: js73@le.ac.uk

Closing Date: Friday 10 April 2015, 17:00 (London time)

Interview Date: 5/6 May 2015, at The British Library

For details of the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme at the British Library please visit http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/highered/hecollab/collabdoctpar/

For more information about the research project offered here and the collaboration with the British Library please consult the Further Particulars, here http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/history/postgraduate/collaborative-doctoral-award-opportunities.

PhD in Bookbinding Description

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The Ligatus research centre in the University of Arts London has just advertised a PhD position on machine learning applied to the history of bookbinding. I have no direct information about this, although I do know the people involved and can say that they are doing a lot of very interesting things. The description as I've received it is as follows:

Ligatus, a research centre of the University of the Arts London, in collaboration with Oxford University are inviting applications for a PhD research project in the subject of machine learning in bookbinding history.

Ligatus is the leading centre in the study of bookbinding history with a strong interest in documentation methods. Recent projects include a survey of 4,000 books (including photographs) from the medieval library of the Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai, Egypt and a thesaurus of bookbinding concepts (Language of Bindings Thesaurus) which can be used for classifying content. This PhD project will look at image recognition and the automatic extraction of bookbinding features from photographs of books.

The ideal candidate will have a computer science degree with relevant projects and a strong interest in cultural heritage or a relevant humanities degree with proven knowledge of machine learning and image analysis techniques.

For more information please contact Dr Athanasios Velios (a.velios@arts.ac.uk). Funding for this position may be available if applications are received by the deadline of the 30th of November.

If you're interested then please contact them directly for further details.


Job Vacancy: ingénieur de recherche en analyse de sources, Paris

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Dominique Stutzmann, long-time supporter of DigiPal and related projects, is advertising for an ingénieur de recherche to work on his HIMANIS project in Paris at the IRHT. The description of the post that he has circulated is as follows:

Dans le cadre du projet européen HIMANIS, l'Institut de Recherche et d'Histoire des Textes (CNRS, UPR 841) recrute un ingénieur de recherche en analyse de sources, pour une durée de deux ans.

Le projet HIMANIS (HIstorical MANuscript Indexing for user-controlled Search), piloté par l’IRHT (D. Stutzmann) et associant les universités de Groningen (Pays-Bas, L. Schomaker) et Valencia (Espagne, E. Vidal), ainsi que la société industrielle A2iA (France, R. Messina), vise à : 

  • indexer automatiquement le texte des registres de la chancellerie royale de France à partir des images numérisées (essentiellement le fonds JJ des Archives nationales et des volumes conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale de France) ;
  • créer des services de recherche, de découverte et d’amélioration collaborative à partir de cette indexation automatique ;
  • créer des savoirs nouveaux (organisation et écritures de la chancellerie)

Le poste est à pourvoir à partir du 1er novembre 2015.

Further details are available from the attached PDF. As always, please contact the HIMANIS project directly with any questions or concerns.

Job Vacancy: Part-Time Associate Lectureship in Palaeography

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Birkbeck College in London is advertising for a part-time Associate Lecturer in Palaeography. Full details are at http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ATY550/associate-lecturer-a-palaeography/, but an extract from that page is below. The deadline for applications is 5 October, so if you are interested then you will have to move quickly.

Birkbeck College, University of London - English and Humanities

Location:Bloomsbury
Salary:£55.65 per hour inclusive pro-rata London Allowance and holiday pay
Hours:Full Time
Contract Type: Permanent
 
Placed on: 14th September 2015
Closes:5th October 2015
Job Ref:11692

The post is part-time Associate Lecturer A. The module is taught for 1.5 hours once a week for 8 weeks. Scheduled start: January 2016.

Purpose and Main Duties

This is an opportunity to join our teaching team on the MA Renaissance Studies and Doctoral programme. You will design and deliver a module entitled ‘Introduction to Manuscripts and Palaeography’, delivered to MA, MPhil and Doctoral students working in the period roughly 1520-1700. The module will focus primarily on reading English hands from 1500-1650. You should be able to teach and assess topics including but not necessarily limited to: Contractions and Secretary Hand; Numerals and Money; Transcription Policies; Bibliography and Footnotes.

Your main responsibility will be preparation, teaching, administration and assessment of the module.

[...]

Further Information

Informal enquiries on the role can be made to Professor Susan Wiseman via email to s.wiseman@bbk.ac.uk  however please note that only completed formal applications through the online system will be considered.

Vacancy: Post-Doctoral Fellow in Digital Manuscript Studies

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The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies at the University of Pennsylvania has just advertised a Postdoctoral Fellowship. This has no connection to the DigiPal project, but I can certainly say that in my personal opinion the team at Pennsylvania would be very good to work with, and this seems to me like an amazing opportunity that shouldn't be missed. Dot Porter (from the Institute) reports that this is one of a group of postdoctoral positions offered by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) on 'Data Curation for Medieval Studies'. The web page for this position is here, and other fellowships are listed here. As usual please don't send any enquiries to me but instead please contact Dot or the Institute directly. 

University of Pennsylvania

Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Manuscript Studies

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries seek an innovative and energetic CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Manuscript Studies to play an integral role in the working life of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies (SIMS) in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at Penn’s Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.

About the Position:

The Fellow will work on the SIMS team on several overlapping initiatives that explore both the materiality of medieval manuscripts as within a digital context and the possibilities of analyzing texts that the codices contain. These initiatives include:

  • Collation Visualization, a developing set of tools that enable scholars to virtually model and visualize the physical construction of manuscripts, relating the models to digital images and content: https://github.com/leoba/VisColl and http://dorpdev.library.upenn.edu/collation/
  • Digital Editions, a project to create image-based editions of medieval manuscripts from our own and other collections and publish them online. (Complete: http://sceti.library.upenn.edu/ljs225/, under development: http://schoenberginstitute.org/pembroke25)
  • Manuscript Ebooks, an ongoing project to create ebooks (in the epub format) from manuscripts in OPenn and from other open source repositories. http://repository.upenn.edu/sims_ebooks/
  • Kalendarium, a project to build a crowd-sourced digital tool for collecting and identifying all the world’s medieval liturgical calendars. Begun at Penn, participants now include Stanford University and the Morgan Library as well as universities in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Scotland. http://schoenberginstitute.org/kalendarium/
  • Video Facsimiles, an experimental project to create high-quality videos of complete manuscripts and annotate them on textual content, visual content, and issues of materiality. http://scalar.usc.edu/works/video-facsimiles/index
  • Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts, currently in year two of a three-year, $300,000 grant from the NEH, which collects information about both the current and historic locations of the world's pre-1600 manuscript books, creating a metacatalogue for finding and indexing the world's manuscripts. http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/schoenberg/
  • Video Orientations, short (1-2 minute) videos that briefly introduce our manuscripts to a general audience, which are stored in our scholarly repository, shared on social media, and linked to manuscript records in our OPAC. http://repository.upenn.edu/sims_video/

The centerpiece of the Fellow’s work will be developing a new initiative in conjunction with SIMS staff and using Penn’s physical and digital resources. This initiative may be a single extended project, or several short-term projects. This would be a two-year position, funded by the Mellon Foundation (via CLIR) and the Penn Libraries.

Required Qualifications:

  • PhD in an area of medieval studies, with a concentration in the history of the book
  • Working knowledge of at least two non-English languages

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience with prior digital projects and some knowledge of programming

Fellow Responsibilities:

  • Contribute to the work of SIMS by supporting existing work as relevant to his or her interests, and develop his or her own initiative to work on during the course of the fellowship, as described above. 
  • Participate in the ongoing digitization of medieval manuscripts through cataloging new manuscripts and generating metadata for existing manuscripts.
  • Assist the library in the adoption of new technologies for access to medieval material, including the International Image Interoperability Framework http://iiif.io/
  • Participate in the curation of special collections library data, including:
    • Curation of data in OPenn (our open access collection of digitized medieval manuscript data: http://openn.library.upenn.edu/
    • Development of a data repository in the library for data already available through Penn;
    • Curation of originally developed video content.
    • Participate in the acquisition of manuscript-related digital resources by Penn Libraries.
    • Make regular contributions to the Penn Libraries Manuscripts Tumblr: http://upennmanuscripts.tumblr.com/

At Penn the Fellow will receive mentoring and guidance from experts in the field. These include Dot Porter (Curator of Digital Research Services), Will Noel (Director – SIMS and Kislak Center), Doug Emery (Digital Content Programmer), Robert Ousterhout (Professor of History of Art, Director of the Center for Ancient Studies), as well as the wider Philadelphia history of the book community. The Fellow will be hosted by SIMS and have a joint appointment in the department of the History of Art at Penn. He or she will also participate in the programs of the Kislak Center and the department of the History of Art. These include organizing seminars on best digital practices, delivering lectures, and curating exhibitions. The Fellow will help plan, solicit contributions, and speak at the ninth annual Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age in 2017. This will provide the Fellow with a platform for presenting new developments in the field of medieval data curation, including those to which he or she has contributed.

About the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies and the Kislak Center

The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies is a teaching and research center devoted to the study of manuscripts in their material and digital forms. Housed in the Penn Libraries’ Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, SIMS emphasizes hands-on work with unique witnesses to the past through the practical study of paleography, codicology, illumination, book arts, book history and the history of science and medicine, among many other fields. These primary source materials offer the Penn community and scholars everywhere unprecedented opportunities for collaboration in multidisciplinary research and scholarship. SIMS engages with regional and international institutions to foster study and use of the collection through lectures, symposia, publications, and digitization programs, and holds a firm commitment to develop and promote digital technologies that instruct and inspire scholars and students around the world through forward-thinking open-access policies.

The Kislak Center is the product of a $17 million renovation project and houses an extraordinary collection of rare books and manuscripts. Its mission is to bring collections, modern technology, and a wide base of patrons together to facilitate access to our common cultural heritage. The fellow will benefit from the combined skills and knowledge of the Kislak Center’s staff as well as faculty of the humanities departments, and the wider resources, of the University. Through its faculty and library resources, the University of Pennsylvania has long been at the forefront of book history and material text research, especially in the medieval and early modern period. The fellow will play a key role in developing this field through his or her research as an integral part of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies team.

Job reminder: Research Associate (Lexis of Cloth and Clothing: Medieval Royal Wardrobe accounts)

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Closing date: Friday 13th November 2015 

The Department of English, Linguistics and Cultural Studies at the University of Westminster is seeking to employ a fixed-term Research Associate with expertise in medieval languages and material culture. The post arises since Dr Louise Sylvester was awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for the research project "Lexis of cloth and clothing: Medieval Royal Wardrobe accounts". This research project is designed to enhance the impact of and engagement with the database of the Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain c. 700-1450 which can be seen at http://lexissearch.arts.manchester.ac.uk/

The aim of the new project is to provide an attractive point of access to that database through a new website featuring summaries of a selection of medieval manuscripts of the Royal Wardrobe held in The National Archives at Kew in London. 

More details at https://vacancies.westminster.ac.uk/hrvacancies/default.aspx?id=50042891

(Detail from National Archives, Wardrobe Accounts E 101/393/15)

Vacancy: Medieval Manuscript Specialist, Cambridge University Library

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The Cambridge University Library is advertising for a specialist in medieval manuscripts. This is a permanent post in the library, and involves a mixture of reader services, cataloguing, digitisation support, teaching and learning support, and exhibitions and public engagement. The short description, copied and pasted from the Cambridge vacancies website, is as follows:

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly motivated and proactive individual to work at the heart of one of the world's major research libraries with an outstanding collection of western medieval manuscripts.

The successful candidate will lead the development of high quality reader-focused services to support scholarship on the manuscripts, promoting them to the research community at local, national and international level. He/she with deal with all aspects of the care and administration of medieval manuscripts and will be outward-looking in developing innovative digital services alongside traditional methods to support the University in its teaching, learning and research and to make the medieval manuscripts accessible to the widest possible audience. He/she will have the necessary skills and enthusiasm to exploit the opportunities created by the Cambridge Digital Library (http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk) and to take a leading part in developing and implementing a new online catalogue of medieval manuscripts.

To apply online for this vacancy, please click on the 'Apply' button below. This will route you to the University's Web Recruitment System, where you will need to register an account (if you have not already) and log in before completing the online application form.

Informal enquiries are welcomed by Dr Suzanne Paul, Keeper of Manuscripts and University Archives (tel: 01223 333149; email: sp510@cam.ac.uk).

Please quote reference VE07968 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.

The University values diversity and is committed to equality of opportunity.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.

Further information

This vacancy has no direct relation to the DigiPal project or project team, so please contact Suzanne Paul directly with any questions. I can say that in my personal opinion this looks like a great opportunity, and I know from experience that Suzanne is a pleasure to work with, so I'd certainly encourage anyone to apply.





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