Atkins Fellows

All applications must be submitted through the jobs site for UNC Charlotte. We begin accepting applications for Summer 2024 on December 15, 2023. Applications submitted by Wednesday, February 7th will receive first consideration.

• Applicants must have completed 24 credits (or two full semesters of work) toward a Master’s in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited program. We also accepts applications from those within one year of having completed such a program.
• Applicants can apply for more than one position.
• Applicants will need to upload a resume, cover letter, unofficial transcripts, and references with their application.
• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. to be considered for these positions.

Applicants may check on the status of their application(s) through the online system used to submit those applications. The Application Process page explains the status codes. You can also review the Program Dates tab to get a better understanding of the approximate timeline for decisions.

Below are the position descriptions for Summer 2024. Applications submitted by February 7th will receive first consideration.

Program dates: May 27 - August 2, 2024
Hourly pay: $20/hr for 10 weeks at 40 hours per week
Transportation/housing stipend: $1,500*

* Participants already living in Charlotte are not eligible for the transportation/housing stipend

Please review the requirements for applicants below.

• Applicants must have completed 24 credits (or two full semesters of work) toward a Master’s in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited program. We also accepts applications from those within one year of having completed such a program.
• Applicants can apply for more than one position.
• Applicants will need to upload a resume, cover letter, unofficial transcripts, and references with their application.
• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. to be considered for these positions.
• Accepting a position in the Fellows program will require moving to Charlotte, NC for the duration of the program. We cannot offer the program virtually. 

Digital Humanities Research Fellow
 

Atkins Library supports digital humanities (DH) projects, initiatives and education at UNC Charlotte through access to technology, instruction, collections, consultations, events, and referrals to campus partners. We offer this support through a collective of librarians from a variety of library units, including Public Services, Digital Scholarship and Innovation, and Special Collections and University Archives. We do not have a digital humanities (or related) center on campus with dedicated staff for this work so we are interested in learning more about how they function and are funded on college and university campuses, as well as how other libraries without centers support DH work. The Digital Humanities Research Fellow will conduct this research employing a range of methods and resources to help better inform our campus on ways we can improve our DH support services to faculty, students and staff.

This fellowship offers an opportunity to learn about the ways that academic libraries and universities support faculty, students and staff with their DH work. Employing a variety of research methods, the Fellow will collect information about different approaches to offering DH support, gather best practices from universities and colleges that do host DH and/or humanities hubs, and meet with members of the DH working group in the library and DH practitioners on-campus. This research will help inform university administrators about the challenges faced by those who are working on or want to work on DH projects and the limitations to the current service models of support. It will also offer recommendations for how the university might be able to expand those services. The Fellow will gain experience collaborating with faculty, librarians, and others involved in the various areas of the digital humanities field. This position will appeal to MLIS students who are interested in digital humanities and digital scholarship, the management of academic research centers, and gaining interview and assessment experience.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• Research skills to locate, document, and assess relevant DH support systems
• General understanding of digital humanities projects and scholarship
• Desire to gain interviewing skills and general assessment experience
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent time management skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conduct an environmental scan of digital humanities hubs (including centers, offices, and other networks of support).
• Interview staff at selected DH centers at both aspiring and comparable research universities and document findings
• Interview librarians and library staff to assess what DH services already exist and what can be added to assist them (including what is already feasible and what we can aspire to). 
• Meet regularly with supervisor and the DH working group in the library to discuss questions and solicit feedback.
• Interview UNC Charlotte teaching and research faculty who are working on DH projects and document findings related to their perspective on what support services are needed in order for them to be successful in their DH work 
• Analyze research findings in order to determine what approaches/policies are transferable.
• Create a formal proposal on findings and recommendations to the university to support digital humanities work. 

Project Supervisor: Jenna Rinalducci, Arts and Architecture Librarian

Education Collections and Technology Fellow
 

Atkins Library supports teaching and learning in the College of Education through a collection of curriculum materials (CIMC) and a teaching lab (T3) containing a variety of technologies. The Atkins Library Collections and Technology Fellow will collaborate with the Education Librarian to contribute to refreshing this collection and the lab through research and the creation of a marketing plan.

This fellowship offers an opportunity to learn about the ways that academic libraries support teachers-in-training through collections and technology as well as the challenges and strategies for keeping them up-to-date. Employing a variety of research methods, the Fellow will research teaching labs on college campuses to inform the rebranding of the teaching lab. They will conduct an audit and assess the usability of the current technology in the lab and create a list of items that should be in the space. They will use this research to formulate a marketing plan for both the teaching lab and the curriculum collection. They will also formulate a plan for any needed restructuring of the collection, space and technology. The Fellow will develop skills to assess and market niche collections and spaces in an academic library. This position will appeal to MLIS students who have prior knowledge and/or interest in K-12 education and librarianship, subject librarianship, collection development and/or digital marketing.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• Research experience
• Familiarity with assessment tools
• Knowledge and/or experience with digital marketing strategies
• Knowledge of or background in K-12 education/libraries
• Experience or interest in instructional technology
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent time management skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Research and write a report about teaching labs on college campuses
• Assess usability of the curriculum collection
• Evaluate a section of the curriculum collection to comply with collection development best practices
• Assess technology in the teaching lab and make recommendations
• Write an action report for rebranding the curriculum collection and teaching lab

Project Supervisor: Abby Moore, Education Librarian

Open Access Usage Fellow
 

The rapid growth of open access (OA) content, services, and initiatives has made it critical for academic libraries to be aware of how the changing pace will impact workflows, subscription packages, use of collections, and how we assess existing collections. Usage data, or data that informs how library users are using our online collections, has always been a key component for measuring and evaluating the impact, relevance and overall value of electronic resources. However, the shift to open access has presented new challenges for libraries and the meaning behind using usage data as a means for analyzing collections. 

The Open Access Usage Fellow will demonstrate how the Collection Services unit of Atkins Library can utilize open access (OA) usage data to support decision-making for existing collections and future acquisitions. This project will contribute to the development of innovative approaches for collecting and analyzing the usage of open access resources, and will tell a story about how our campus utilizes our open access and subscription-based content. This Fellow will learn about e-resource usage data, and gain an understanding of key metrics and reports for usage analysis, as well as learn techniques for cleaning and organizing spreadsheets to support e-resource management functions. The Fellow will review literature about the current landscape of open access and usage data practices in academic libraries, and use that information to inform their approach to this project. They will gather and analyze various data points about our library's resources and develop a report for Collection Services that details information learned about OA in libraries, key findings from the data, and present recommendations for reviewing OA content. They will also collaborate with the Electronic Resources Management Librarian on the development of an analytics dashboard for easy retrieval of OA usage data. 

This fellowship will offer experience working with Collection Services using library analytics tools and systems, learn about approaches to collection analysis, and gain practical, essential knowledge working with e-resource usage data. This project is ideal for MLIS students with an interest in working with collections, especially those who want to learn more about managing e-resources. The tasks involved in the project would appeal to someone who enjoys problem solving and turning messy information into something meaningful and presentable. This opportunity also offers experience that can strengthen applications for positions relating to library electronic resources, collections, systems, and data analysis. With this project having a direct focus on open access, the knowledge gained on the OA landscape would also be beneficial for work in scholarly communications, textbook affordability, and/or OA publishing.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• Familiarity with spreadsheets (Google Sheets or MS Excel)
• Experience organizing information from a variety of sources
• Ability to problem solve, think analytically, and perform highly-detailed work
• An openness and willingness to learn about e-resource management, usage data, and library management systems (LMS) 
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Creativity and adaptability
• Interest in library collections and/or coursework in collection management
• Enthusiasm for problem-solving and identifying patterns in data
• Experience with data analysis and/or data visualization (e.g. creating graphs, cleaning data, etc.)
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community 

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Conduct research on open access in e-resources and collection assessment as it relates to academic libraries
• Gain hands-on experience working with e-resource usage data, utilizing techniques to clean spreadsheets, and other aspects that support e-resource management functions
• Utilize title lists (files containing the resources we’re paying for), usage data reports, and other materials to gather and organize relevant data points
• Clean and analyze gathered data to identify trends, patterns, outliers, etc.
• Write a brief data plan describing the dataset, defining data points, etc. 
• Assist with creating a usage data dashboard
• Communicate and present findings and recommendations using the research and data gathered 

Project Supervisor: Erika Boardman, Electronic Resources Management Librarian

The Atkins Fellows Program is hosted by Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte. Atkins Library serves the students, faculty, and staff of UNC Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina. With current enrollment at nearly 30,000, UNC Charlotte is the fastest growing campus in the UNC system. Never been to our campus? Take a virtual tour.

Charlotte is also one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Our light rail system makes it possible for fellows to complete the fellowship and enjoy the city without a car. As North Carolina’s urban research university, UNC Charlotte provides access to all of the amenities that you expect of a city with the benefit of being situated in driving distance to the mountains and the ocean. This is an exciting time to live in Charlotte and work at Atkins Library and we hope you will consider joining us.

Our campus community is comprised of people who represent the wide breadth of gender and sexual identities, races and ethnicities, faith traditions, nationalities, and other social categories and backgrounds.  These varied identities and experiences enrich the University as a whole. UNC Charlotte and Atkins Library strive to celebrate this diversity, and to sustain an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. In order to advance this vision, the Atkins Fellows program encourages applications from all underrepresented groups.

The Atkins Fellows program typically begins the 3rd or 4th week of May and ends the last week of July or first week of August. Fellows will be expected to work a full-time schedule for 10 weeks total, with specific hours and availability determined by their project supervisor(s).

Important Dates:

Mid-December - Positions posted

Early February - Begin reviewing applications
Note: Applications submitted by February 7, 2024 will receive first consideration for the Summer 2024 program.

Mid-February - early March - phone interviews with selected candidates

Mid-March - Notification to applicants

May 27 - Fellows Program begins

August 2 - Fellows Program ends

Participants in this program will be paid at an hourly rate ($20/hour) for ten weeks of forty hours per week. Paychecks will be issued by direct deposit every two weeks, two Fridays after the end of each pay period.

 

Participants joining from outside the Charlotte area will also receive a $1,500 housing and transportation stipend to help with the cost of moving to Charlotte for the fellowship. Participants who already live in Charlotte are not eligible for the housing/transportation stipend.

 

Note: The hourly rate and housing/transportation stipend will be taxed with each paycheck.

Fellows can choose to live on-campus or off-campus. Intern Housing is for students enrolled at a college or university and working full-time in an internship or job in the Charlotte area. Exceptions do apply for recently graduated students. If you wish to live in campus housing you will need to complete a separate application after being selected for the program. Costs for summer 2024 were $29 per night. Learn more about campus housing options.

 

Fellows are not required to live on-campus and may seek other local accommodations. Please contact the program coordinator to learn about off-campus housing options.

I am graduating this Spring.  Can I still apply for the program?
Yes.  Recent graduates and those that will be graduating in the upcoming Spring semester are welcome to apply to the program. 

The website indicates that applicants must have completed 24 credits (or two full semesters of work) toward a MLIS from an ALA-accredited program. By when must we complete those credits?
Any courses you are taking this Spring semester count toward the 24 credits. There is also some flexibility with that requirement if you are just a few credits short.

I live in another state.  Is it feasible for me to apply and participate in the program?
Yes. Fellows have joined us from library programs across the country. You can pursue on-campus or off-campus housing options in Charlotte and we do our best to help you. You could also feasibly move here for the summer and navigate the city without a car (several have done so) because Charlotte has a light rail system.

Can I participate in the program virtually?
The program requires that you live in the Charlotte area and work on-campus full-time for the length of the fellowship.

I applied for one of the Atkins Fellows positions. How can I check on the status of my application?
Applicants may check on the status of their application(s) through the online system used to submit those applications. The Application Process page explains the status codes. You can also review the Program Dates tab to get a better understanding of the approximate timeline for decisions.