Category Archives: Uncategorized

UI/Web Programmer Position

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Lafayette College seeks a talented and engaged web programmer to join the Library’s Digital Scholarship Services department. Do you love libraries? Are you passionate about software development? Are you excited by the prospect of designing innovative, elegant interfaces?

The person selected for this position will lead design and web programming efforts for Lafayette Library’s digital repository ecosystem.  We value and support involvement with digital library development communities and encourage close collaboration locally and across institutions. We seek someone who enjoys autonomy and also thrives as an integral part of a dynamic team that is committed to furthering digital research and scholarship. We invite applications from those who share our perspective, particularly women and people from other under-represented groups.

Required Qualifications:

  • Relevant programming experience using modern technologies such as AngularJS, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, CSS, Sass/Haml or LESS
  • Experience (or strong interest) in agile software development using modern tools for issue tracking, project management, and source control

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Computer Science degree
  • Experience with UX design
  • Familiarity with digital repository frameworks such as Fedora, Hydra, or Islandora
  • Experience with library-specific technologies such as Omeka and Neatline.

If this ad describes you, please send a resume and cover letter explaining your interest and what you can offer our growing development team to: Neil McElroy, Dean of Libraries, Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042 or via email to: castells@lafayette.edu.

 

New GIS workshops

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Data Visualization & GIS Librarian John Clark will be offering a two part introductory class on GIS. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a powerful, yet easily accessible technology, used for analyzing and mapping information about the world around us.

In the first class participants will be given an introduction to basic geographic and information science concepts followed by a hands-on orientation to ArcGIS, a popular desktop GIS application available to the Lafayette community at Skillman Library and elsewhere on campus.

A second, optional workshop will be available the following week and will offer additional training using the ArcGIS application. You may take this first class as a complete, albeit brief, introduction to GIS or you may sign up for the series of two.

John will be offering two sections of this class.

**(Please note the change in schedule from original posting)**

Section A Section B
Part I: Introduction Weds. Feb. 25 Friday Feb. 27
Part II: Workshop (optional) Weds. Mar. 4 Friday Mar. 6

All four classes will be held 12:15 to 1pm in Room 003 Skillman Library.

Lunch will be provided.

To enroll RSVP John Clark at clarkjh@lafayette.edu.

Please indicate if you would like to take one or both Wednesday classes; or one or both of the Friday classes. 18 seats available in each.

For more information on starting a digital project with DSS or applying for an internship opportunity contact us at digital@lafayette.edu, or call (610) 330-5796. 

Professor Paul Barclay and the East Asia Image Collection on the World Stage

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Today History Professor Paul Barclay presents his paper “Playing the Race Card in Japanese Governed Taiwan – Anthropometric Photographs as ‘Shape-Shifting Jokers’” at the European Association of Japanese Studies’ International Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The paper stems from Barclay’s interest in the visual history of the Japanese empire with a particular focus on mass-produced ephemera. As the general editor of the East Asia Image Collection, developed in partnership with Eric Luhrs, Director of the Library’s Digital Scholarship program, Barclay has amassed a collection of over 5,000 digitized items including postcards, stereographic prints, photographs, and several other media types.

His presentation traces the material history of a single photograph. The image, taken by Japanese ethnologist-photographer Mori Ushinosuke, is an anthropometric portrait of a Taiwanese woman, Paazeh Naheh. Barclay argues that the heavy reproduction of Paazeh’s portrait and the shifting contexts of that image, from a lantern slide, to an ethnographic object of study, to a picture postcard, reveal more than the typical concerns of imperialist discourses and racist essentialism often associated with anthropometric materials. Instead, this image functions as a “shape-shifting joker,” refusing a stable symbolic function. Because the portrait appeared in a broad spectrum of venues and was utilized for a range of agendas, some of which ran counter to the imperial narratives about Taiwan and its people, it subverts the possibility for a monolithic interpretation

paazeh1

Images of Paazeh Naheh in the EAIC

The conference brings together scholars in Japanese history and culture with the aim of fostering an international exchange of ideas. Barclay will present his work alongside colleagues from both Japan and the United States on the panel “Photography in Twentieth Century Japan: Imaging Self and Other.” The presentation is part of his larger project, a book-length study on the history of Japanese-Taiwan Indigenous Peoples relations from 1873 to 1945.

Barclay’s work illustrates the value of the East Asia Image Collection in opening new avenues of investigation for scholars worldwide. The faceted discovery interface allows users to create virtual image sets of items that meet specific criteria while the ability to identify precise relationships between seemingly disparate items aids in the recognition of patterns of production, imagery, and context, making the EAIC a powerful and innovative resource in the field.

To learn more about Professor Barclay’s work and the EAIC visit the collection at: http://digital.lafayette.edu/collections/eastasia.

Connect with this project on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EastAsiaImageCollection

or follow the latest from Professor Barclay on his new EAIC blog: http://sites.lafayette.edu/eastasia/

For more information on starting a digital project with DSS or applying for an internship opportunity contact us at digital@lafayette.edu, or call (610) 330-5796.