PhD Studentship on the Impact of Large Scale Digital Collections

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship at UCL Centre for Digital Humanities in collaboration with the British Library, to work on the impact of Large Scale Digitisation Initiatives (LDSIs), also commonly referred to as Million Book Projects. The aim of the research is to study the use of large-scale digitised collections to ascertain how, when, and by whom they are used. The research will gather quantitative and qualitative evidence and investigate theories and predictions about the impact of LDSIs on libraries, publishers and the reading and researching public.

The work will be carried out at the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities which brings together work being done in many different UCL departments and centres, in the humanities, computer science and engineering, as well as Library Services and Museums and Collections. We also collaborate with organisations outside UCL, such as museums, galleries, libraries and archives. We aim to produce research that is meaningful to both computer scientists and humanities scholars, and that will bring about new knowledge in both research areas. In this case the research will collaborate with the British Library, and make use of some of their large-scale digitised collections.

The Studentship is for three years and carries a stipend of £15,000 for the 2010/11 session. This means that fees will be paid, but not all living expenses will be covered. Applicants must have at least a good 2.1 in their first degree, and ideally an MA or MSc in a relevant discipline such as information studies, digital humanities or human computer interaction. Students may begin their research either in October or January of the 2010-2011 session.

To apply, please send a CV, covering letter and details of two academic referees to Kerstin Michaels (k.michaels@ucl.ac.uk). Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Claire Warwick. (c.warwick@ucl.ac.uk)

The closing date for applications is 1 September 2010.