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Applications open: mid- to late spring
Digital Scholarship Summer Graduate Internships are summer term paid graduate student appointments within the University Library System’s Digital Scholarship Services (DSS). In this program, the Graduate Interns will gain experience in the skills of contemporary digital scholarship through project-based work, culminating in a public presentation. As time permits, the Graduate Interns will also have the opportunity to gain experience working with faculty and students as part of DSS. Blending work experience and professional development, Digital Scholarship Graduate Internships help prepare students for success in digitally-inflected scholarly careers at the University and beyond.
Details
Graduate Interns commit to working remotely 20 hours a week during the summer term.
The specific work of each internship will be planned in cooperation between the Graduate Intern and the Digital Scholarship Librarian, based on the match between the Graduate Intern’s interests in digital scholarship and library collections, services, and existing projects. The internship will center the Graduate Intern’s interests and learning goals related to digital scholarship, supported and structured by a cooperatively designed project. This project will emphasize one or more of the following:
- Use of library collections in digital scholarship
- Contribution to a digital project hosted by or affiliated with the Library
- Extension of a ULS-supported digital scholarship or scholarly publishing method or program (e.g. by investigating new applications or increasing capacity)
The Graduate Interns will make a public online presentation of their work at the end of the internship. Graduate Interns working on library-affiliated projects will receive public credit and recognition as contributors. During the internship, DSS staff will provide Graduate Interns with individual or small-group training on foundational digital scholarship skills, such as:
- Digital project management and collaboration tools
- Basics of copyright and licensing, principles of open scholarship
- Basics of data formats and modeling (e.g. structured/unstructured; tabular/hierarchical)
- Obtaining and organizing data/digital material for study
- Digitization and Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Website creation and personal portfolio development
- Critical and ethical perspectives on Digital Scholarship
Based on specific project work, each Graduate Intern will also continue training, both directed and self-guided, on areas of specialization. These may include:
- Text analysis
- Data visualization
- Advanced data modeling, database design, and querying
- Spatial analysis and GIS
- Digital exhibits and storytelling
- Coding, scripting, and computational workflows
- Data stewardship and forensics
- Scholarly publishing
Eligibility
- Graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh
- Completed at least two full semesters of graduate coursework
- Must be able to commit to working remotely 20 hours a week during the summer term
- Must not hold any other university employment during the summer term
- No prior digital scholarship experience required
- Complete Digital Scholarship Summer Graduate Internship application
