The Media Studies department is looking for a versatile, highly motivated PhD candidate to work on dedicated retrieval tools for Web archives. The position is part of the WebART project (Web Archive Retrieval Tools), conducted in close collaboration with the Web archive of the Dutch National Library (KB) The Hague, and the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI). WebART is funded through the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) under its Continuous Access To Cultural Heritage (CATCH) program.

The advent of the Web has had a revolutionary impact on how we acquire, share and publish information. In fact, it has a fundamental impact on our daily lives that increasingly take place "on the Web." However, this increasing dependence on the Web comes at a price: the ease of publishing on the Web also results in the easy loss of information - Web content tends to be ephemeral. The WebART project will critically assess the value of Web archives for realistic research scenarios, and develop information access tools and methods that maximize the archive's utility for research. Our approach is to conduct actual Web archive research hand-in-hand with the development of Web archive access tools tailored to the realistic research scenarios. Technically, we will use structured DB/IR technology to let searchers construct, store, share, and reuse complex search strategies corresponding to emerging digital research methods for the Web and Web archive.

Requirements

• The PhD candidate should hold a research-oriented Master's degree.
• (MSc/MA) or an equivalent qualification, and have a strong background or demonstrable interest in: 1. Information retrieval, especially in statistical language modeling; 2. Semi-structured data, semantic annotation, and linked data; and 3. Interactive information access.
• Solid programming skills are a must.
• Research experience or demonstrable interest in research on Web archives and the Web is a definite advantage.

Further information

A detailed description of the WebART project can be found at http://staff.science.uva.nl/~kamps/webart/

For further details please contact Dr.ir. Jaap Kamps, e-mail ‘kamps@uva.nl’.

Appointment

The appointment will be for a period of four years at the department of Media Studies within the Faculty of Humanities and should lead to a dissertation. The gross monthly salary will range from € 2,042 in the first year to € 2,612 in the final year, according to the Dutch salary scales for PhD students.

Job application

Applications should include a letter of motivation, a detailed curriculum vitae, a publication list and two letters of reference. The application should be sent - before December 7, 2011 - by e-mail to ‘webarchiving@gmail.com’. Please quote the vacancy number in the subject field.