UNIT: REFERENCE - REFERENCE STUDENT - WEB ASSISTANT

Purpose: Provide support for Reference Department by assisting with web development activities, compiling data, and producing reports. 

Reports to: Sarah New, Web Services Librarian

Duties: The Reference Student - Web Assistant will assist the Web Services Librarian by:

• Assisting with editing/creating web pages and web-based services

• Assisting with usability studies and focus groups to assess the library's website and services, including conducting surveys and interviews with library patrons and UMBC students
• Compiling results of assessment activities and assisting with other special reports
• Assisting with creation and editing of online tutorials
• May also have the opportunity to participate in and provide support for various other reference-related projects.

Skills required: The assistant should have a basic understanding of how information is organized, technical competence with computers and databases, word processing and common office software, experience with HTML, Javascript, and ability and aptitude to learn basic PHP.  Preference will be given to applicants who are experienced with tutorial creation software, such as Adobe Illustrator, TechSmith Camtasia or Adobe Captivate; or who have graphic design experience; or who are taking (or have taken) IS 303 or IS 387.  The assistant should be motivated, able to work in a team-based collaborative environment or independently, and possess excellent oral and written communication skills.  The assistant must also display demonstrated professionalism, good judgment skills, excellent public service orientation, and exceptional interpersonal skills.

Schedule: Up to 10 hours per week during the Fall, Spring, and Summer semesters; work hours are somewhat flexible.

Pay Scale: $10.25 per hour

To Apply: Contact Sarah New by e-mail: snew@umbc.edu or phone: 410-455-1551

Today's pick:  Freedom : a photographic history of the African American struggle

 

 

THE CENTURY OF THE BODY: 100 PHOTOWORKS OF 1900-2000

BOYSTOWN: LA ZONA DE TOLERANCIA

Join us in a celebration of libraries.

This post was written by Special Collections student assistant Jen Wachtel. Thank you, Jen!

The Retriever Weekly, our university’s proud student newspaper, began publishing as UMBC News in 1966. Special Collections and the University Archives maintain the print copies of all issues of the Retriever, and a large section of the issues (1966-1981 and 2002 to the present) are available online in UMBC's Digital Collections. With monetary support from UMBC's Office of Institutional Advancement, students and staff have been preparing to send the remaining issues to Creekside Digital, a digitization vendor located a short drive away in Glen Arm, MD. This project is a part of the Lyrasis Digitization Collaborative.

I conducted an inventory of the issues of the Retriever dating from January 1983 to May 1997, totaling over four hundred newspapers. Along the way, I found insights into some of UMBC’s hot-button topics of the 1980s and 1990s, including contentious construction projects and students’ demands for increased parking spaces (ed. note - complaining about parking is a long-standing UMBC tradition!). I particularly enjoyed following the timeline of the university administration, including the appointment of one Freeman A. Hrabowski III to Vice Provost at UMBC and his later position as Interim President for a “full academic year and possibly longer.” Of course, no inventory of The Retriever would be complete without the satirical Deceiver. Published annually on the week of April 1^st, the Deceiver  featured such choice headlines as “Giant Terrapin attacks UMBC” (referring to College Park’s mascot) and “SCHPORTZ” (1993).

Jen Wachtel working in Special Collections.

I also noticed some strange anomalies in The Retriever’s numbering system. From miswritten Roman numerals (XXVIV for 29 and IXX for 24) to a startling continuity error, the Retriever always had special surprises in store. The most bizarre circumstance was that in the academic year 1995-96, the Retriever accidentally published two separate versions of Volume 31 – one for fall, and one for spring, before continuing with Volumes 32 and 33 in 1996-97. This means that since spring 1996, every volume of The Retriever has been one number short!

Special Collections is located on the first floor of the library behind the gallery. We are open Monday through Friday from 1-4pm, on Thursdays from 1-8pm, and by appointment.