The British Library is currently selecting professional development projects for doctoral researchers, hosted by our specialist curatorial teams and other Library experts. All applications for the PhD placement scheme must be supported by the applicant’s PhD supervisor and their department’s Graduate Tutor (or equivalent). Each placement (3 month or PT equivalent) has a dedicated workplan, plus full supervision and training and 3 of these placements will particularly contribute to the field of digital scholarship:

1. DIGITAL HUMANITIES IN CHINA: The Library is working on digitising and cataloguing our vast Chinese collections, to inform the development of future British Library services and support for scholars conducting innovative and computationally driven research. Through the placement, the Digital Research Team in conjunction with Asian & African Collections at the British Library will explore the extent to which Digital Humanities activities - relating to and within China - are being undertaken.

Image: Diamond Sutra of 868AD, frontispiece and text.( ID 010627)The British Library Flickr . Reproduced under the Creative Commons Licence2

2. THE FUTURE OF THE PHD THESIS: The rise of the non-text thesis presents a new curatorial challenge in digital archiving. As more universities allow students to submit a non-traditional final thesis for their PhD – for example in the form of a website, software, film, performance, artwork or database - this project will examine the implications for EThOS (http://ethos.bl.uk), the British Library’s online repository of text-based theses. The project anticipates the potential issues surrounding the non-text theses, and seeks to explore how to adapt to and embrace this growing trend. 

3. DIGITAL –ONLY PUBLISHING: This PhD placement offers an opportunity to contribute to the Library’s on-going commitment to grow our holdings. The successful candidate will focus on a specific sector of the digital-only publishing sector, and their findings will be used to help anticipate future developments. The placement offers a valuable opportunity to gain insight into the many and varied challenges of managing published digital objects on a large scale.

The application deadline for the 2016/2017 PhD placements is 19 February 2016.

Full application guidelines available at: http://www.bl.uk/aboutus/highered/phd-placement-scheme/

Any questions please contact [email protected]

 

Jane Shepard

Research Support team