DCEP

Summer Internships

Data Curation Education Program
Graduate School of Library and Information Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Data Curation Education Program (DCEP) is pleased to announce two exciting internship opportunities for our graduate Data Curation, Bioinformatics, and Certificate of Advanced Studies students. These competitive summer internships are six weeks in duration, and are tailored towards students with an interest in data curation, digital preservation, and project management. Both internships are funded by the “Century of Knowledge” grant. The stipend for these six week summer internships is $4,072.80; support for housing is also available. Applicants must be able to travel.

Students interested in applying for one of these internships should fill out the application form located below. A complete application will require all fields to be filled in. Please send your application to Melissa Cragin, Project Coordinator for the Data Curation Education Program. - cragin@illinois.edu

Application Form: DCEP 2009 Summer Internship Application Form

Applications are due: Sunday, March 29th, 2009
Submit your application to Melissa Cragin - cragin@illinois.edu
M. Cragin, Project Coordinator, Data Curation Education Program, 244-5574.

Data Curation Internship (Purdue)

Distributed Data Curation Center

Purdue University Libraries

West Lafayette, Indiana

Overview

Purdue University is a research extensive, land-grant university of approximately 40,000 students that is located in West Lafayette, Indiana. The D2C2 is an interdisciplinary research center situated in the Purdue University Libraries.

Position Description and Scope

The purpose of this internship is to research and define options for a potential data repository service for the curation of datasets created by Purdue doctoral students in support of their dissertations. The intern will consult with faculty and staff in the Libraries, Thesis Office, Graduate School, Information Technology, and academic units in order to analyze the current process of formulating, submitting, defending, and publishing dissertations; identify and explore needs for a data repository to support the process; understand the institution’s current data curation capabilities; and how these needs may be met. A literature review and environmental scan will be conducted to identify and study other services that may support dissertation data. The internship will conclude in a report that describes options for providing such a service at Purdue. This report will include service level definitions, identification of roles and activities for departments, individual staff and faculty in launching and supporting the service, development of cost models, and plans for the marketing, assessment, and long-term sustainability of the service. The report will be practical such that its content can be easily repurposed to propose and implement the service.

The successful intern does not need technical or programming skills but must have a firm understanding of data curation principles and excellent oral and written communication skills.

Anticipated Outcomes

• The report described above (required).
• Present an informal “brown bag” talk to Purdue Libraries faculty (required).
• Contribute to a paper or poster for presentation at a professional conference (optional).

Duration

Six weeks between May 15 and August 15, 2009

Supervisor

Michael Witt, assistant professor of library science

Supplemental Information

http://d2c2.lib.purdue.edu

Data Curation Internship (Smithsonian)

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

Overview

Smithsonian Institution Libraries (SIL) creates and curates various digital assets and has had an active digital program for several years. Through those years various projects have taken our approach to our digital library offerings in new and interesting directions with products and storage needs changing over time. At this time the SIL's current and future digital needs to be examined and evaluated. This should include a comprehensive survey of all of our current work (including formats, storage, delivery, etc.); estimation of our growth in the next five years; plan of the best practices that should be implemented; and requirements needed towards future services and digital curation.

Position Description and Scope

This internship will focus on assessing the status and the various modes of creation and curation of SIL's digital assets and recommending changes where needed. Current status includes storage capacity and access to in-process content, details of metadata creation, and integration with other information systems (e.g. library catalog, Institutional digital asset management system). Surveying the current deliverables will be the initial step to find the various projects that have been created in various pockets of our diverse branches. This evaluation will include interviewing various Library staff and Institution staff on what is assumed from the digital program especially with regard to deliverable formats and long term storage. The intern will spend some time discovering "hidden" digital collections created outside the oversight of the libraries. Part of this initial evaluation should be the perceived and real needs of a successful, sustainable digital library program as they exist at other institutions.

The SI Libraries creates and edits web-accessible content, but relies almost entirely on the Institution's Office of the Chief Information Officer for technical support, server maintenance, etc.

Anticipated Outcomes

The intern will then summarize the state of SIL digital content curation and generate a list of recommendations for the future. This may include an outline of past, current and projected needs for SIL's digital library program and should contain suggestions to eliminate duplication of effort or to achieve some economies of scale where the SIL has under-utilized expertise. S/he will also recommend how hidden collections and other SIL staff can be incorporated into the digital library program given current work flow and storage landscape of the SIL.

A final report with current status, future directions and needs. An outline of requirements to fulfill a successful SIL Digital Library within the SI structure.

Duration

The internship dates are flexible but should be on site and begin and end the work any time between May 15 and August 31, 2009.

Supervisor

The intern will report to a team of library staff: Martin Kalfatovic, Head of the Digital Services Division, Suzanne Pilsk, Metadata Librarian, and Alvin Hutchinson, Information Services Librarian.

Supplemental Information

http://www.sil.si.edu/