Expert Digital Scholarship in the Humanities

Main Responsibilities:

This strategically important post will have 8 core responsibilities:

1. You are an active member of the team of experts of Artes, focused on developing services for digital forms of research and teaching in the Arts and Humanities, in line with the mission and vision of Artes..
2. You act as a catalyst in the implementation and integration of digital collections and digital tools in Artes, whether project based or business as usual. In order to do this, you create partnerships which support Artes’ strategic objectives in acquiring digital content, exploiting the collection in digital ways, and fostering digital scholarship.
3. You are co-responsible for the internal and external educational initiatives of Artes in the field of digital scholarship. You train and advise other library staff, students and researchers in the opportunities for and practices of digital scholarship.
4. You are co-responsible for the support of digital projects initiated by researchers and teaching staff in the Arts and Humanities. You collaborate in writing project proposals and attracting external funding. Attention to the durability of the tools and infrastructure used, as well as to the ‘total cost of ownership’ is essential.
5. You take a leading role in digital projects initiated by Artes. You prepare project proposals in line with the mission and vision of Artes and KU Leuven Libraries, attract external funding and act as project manager.
6. During the preparation and execution of digital projects, you act as the liaison between researchers, teaching staff, students, other experts of Artes, colleagues of other divisions of KU Leuven Libraries and, if and when applicable, external partners.
7. You actively participate in relevant networks of expertise or work groups within KU Leuven and KU Leuven Libraries.
8. You actively participate in national and international meetings and conferences concerning digital scholarship in the Humanities, representing Artes and KU Leuven Libraries.

Skills & Qualifications:

• You hold a MA degree, preferably in the Arts and Humanities (history or art history), and an additional degree (or comparable experience) in Computer or Information Science.
• Proven ability in the application for research projects and/or project management is an asset.
• Experience with digital humanities and more particularly the role of libraries within digital humanities is an asset.
• You have analytic skills and a demonstrable ability to translate the need of researchers, teaching staff and students in the Arts and Humanities in technical and functional requirements.
• You are a team player and collaborate well with colleagues.
• You are enterprising, work well under pressure and have a sense for innovation and quality.
• You are committed to continuous learning.
• You have excellent communication skills in English. If you do not speak or write Dutch, you are required to master the language in a period of under three years.

Reporting To: Artes is the division of KU Leuven Libraries which partners with researchers, teaching staff and students in the Arts and Humanities in the field of scholarly communication by building collections and offering information services.

University Hosting the Position: KU Leuven, Belgium