job opening: data munger needed for Open Library project

I rarely post links to job here because it seems to me that most postings for library jobs are more or less the same. This one is different. The Open Library project, which I linked to here before, is looking for some new folks. You’d be working with a fun team of geniuses, most notably Karen Coyle who is the chief librarian of the project. Telecommuting an option. Interested? Read the job description, then email Aaron and tell him you heard about it here.

Tasks include: working with our chief librarian, Karen Coyle, to implement algorithms to do data merging and other processing tasks; writing scrapers and crawlers to grab various data sources; writing importers to parse this data into something that can be imported into our database; and managing all the people who want to help us with these tasks.

Walt Crawford on what’s next for Walt

Walt Crawford received his termination notice from OCLC. I was really hoping he’d be one of the people they kept and apparently so was he. He’s now 61 and looking for work. In the library profession this shouldn’t be impossible, but it’s always a pain in the ass. If you’ve got a need for someone with his background, experience or attitude, don’t wait, drop him a line.

jobs I would want if I were looking for a job

I’d like to see some sort of Librarian Dream Jobs blog that had all these funky jobs like this one: “Poster Archivist. The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is seeking an experienced, detail-oriented professional to oversee the cataloging, preservation, and management of its unique domestic and international political poster collection.”

jobs for librarians

I’ve been fascinated to see how the jobs for librarians have been changing, just over the time I’ve been a librarian. Check out this job for a Head Librarian in a facility that they are predicting will be “bookless” before too long. Information architect for the Veterans Health Administration (posted at MetaFilter jobs, whee!) doesn’t look too librarian-ish, but then you look and see that it’s all about metadata, 508 compliance (accessibility) and controlled vocabularies. It’s been a while since I was actively looking for work, but even scanning LISJobs now is a different experience than it was when the site started. Interesting times to be us.