Applications are currently open for the 2024-2025 academic calendar
Overview
Digital Scholarship Graduate Student Assistants (GSAs) are placed within the University Library System’s Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) during the fall and spring terms of an academic year. In this position, GSAs gain experience in the skills of contemporary digital scholarship, are embedded in the teaching activities of the unit, contribute to digital projects hosted by or affiliated with the library, and provide support to faculty and students on digital research and publishing activities as a part of the library’s Digital Scholarship Services.
Emphasizing professional development, the ULS Digital Scholarship GSA is intended to prepare students for success in digitally-inflected scholarly careers, both in the academy and beyond. This two-term GSA position builds on our ULS Summer Digital Scholarship Graduate Internship program by providing an opportunity for more sustained and in-depth contributions to digital scholarship practice.
Details
The appointment requires a commitment of effort up to but not exceeding 20 hours per week. This appointment will be conducted primarily on-site in the Digital Scholarship offices within Hillman Library.
Tasks include assisting DSS staff and librarians with consultations, departmental project work, unit tasks and instruction, and participating in professional training opportunities. Additionally, the GSA will work on a cooperatively-designed digital scholarship project that will emphasize either or both of the following:
- Use of library collections in digital scholarship, and/or
- Further development of library support in digital scholarship.
The nature of this project will vary, but it is intended to allow the GSA to make a robust connection to the DSS team and work on an ongoing project.
The ULS is committed to proper credit and attribution for all who work on its projects. At a minimum, GSAs will receive public credit and recognition as contributors to digital scholarship projects. Where GSA contributions are more specialized and/or independent, the GSA will receive public credit and recognition as team-member and/or (co-)author.
For new GSAs, and as needed, DSS staff will provide individual or small-group training on foundational
digital scholarship skills:
- Coding and computational methods
- Critical and ethical perspectives on digital scholarship
- Data acquisition, manipulation, analysis, and visualization
- Digital project management and collaboration tools
- Digital storytelling
- Digitization and digital creation
- Mapping, geographic information systems, and spatial analysis
- Multimedia and web-based scholarship
- Research data management
- Text mining and analysis
- Scholarly publishing (basics of copyright and licensing, principles of open scholarship)
Supporting Resources and Projects
On-campus resources
- The Open Lab @ Hillman provides support and resources to anyone in the Pitt community interested in incorporating emerging technology into their teaching or directly engaging in hands-on exploratory learning. Technologies in the Open Lab include 2D scanning, 3D scanning, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), 3D printing, vinyl cutting, laser cutting and engraving, virtual reality, and more. The Open Lab @ Hillman is a collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning.
- ULS Distinctive Collections including Archives and Special Collections, Frick Fine Arts Library, Finney Music Library, Center for American Music, and other collections of archival, unique, and/or specialized materials.
Online resources
- ULS Digital Collections and Repositories include Historic Pittsburgh, D-Scholarship@Pitt (the university’s institutional repository), the Archive of European Integration, and the PhilSci Archive, and the Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data (CCVGD 数字村庄) project.
Eligibility
- PhD students in the humanities or humanistic social sciences in the University of Pittsburgh’s Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences.
- Completed at least two full semesters of graduate coursework.
- Must be able to commit up to 20 hours of effort a week during the fall and spring terms.
- No prior digital scholarship experience required.
Stipend
The GSA stipend is at the current level of a Teaching Fellow.
Application Instructions
Requirements
- Current CV
- Feel free to include links to prior or current digital scholarship work in your CV, if applicable.
- Please answer the following questions (250-500 words each) in an application letter:
- Your Interests: Describe your research topics, methods, and/or approaches, and discuss how these intersect with digital scholarship. You may address how you currently interact with digital tools or methods as a scholar or hobbyist or highlight potential areas of intersection between your own work and ULS digital scholarship services.
- Your Goals: Describe your goals for the GSA: what would you like to learn about using digital tools or methods, and how you might apply what you learn to your own research or professional growth?
- Project Emphasis: What library collection or service would you like to investigate and contribute to during the GSA? You don’t need to have a fully conceptualized idea but please include some specifics about your main interest areas, identify one or more digital methods that you might focus on, and explain why you made those selections.
Application Submission
Send your application materials via email, with the subject line “Digital Scholarship GSA”, to ULS-DigitalScholarshipServices@pitt.edu. The same email may be used for any questions about this GSA opportunity or the application process.
Priority will be given to applications received before Friday, April 5, 2024.
