The University of Wisconsin Natural History Museums Council is seeking an informatics specialist/database manager as part of a 2-year grant to centralize the databases of the university’s five natural history museums. In order to achieve the goal of a unified UW natural history museums data portal for the entire campus and public, the database manager will advise the curatorial staff with regards to hardware/software installation, data migration, and development of a public user interface, ideally taking advantage of available biodiversity informatics platforms currently in use by the natural history museums community (e.g., Specify and/or Symbiota). The position may be extended up to 2 years depending on funding and project needs.
The Information Processing Consultant (IPC) will work with a team of faculty, academic staff, and students located across the university who manage diverse collections of natural history museum specimens. In particular these include the collections of Anthropology, the Wisconsin State Herbarium (Botany), the Geology Museum (Geoscience), the Insect Research Collection (Entomology), and the Zoological Museum (Integrative Biology). Each of these museums maintains an independent database of specimen records, images, maps, and metadata, but they are not formally integrated. In order to achieve that goal of a unified UW natural history museums data portal for the entire campus and public, the IPC will advise the curatorial staff with regards to hardware / software installation, data migration, and development of a public user interface, ideally taking advantage of available biodiversity informatics platforms currently in use by the natural history museums community (e.g., Specify and/or Symbiota). The ability to communicate to a team of individuals who have varying and limited IT backgrounds is essential.
Education:
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Informatics, Natural History or substantially related field.
Required:
-1 year or more of working knowledge of and experience with relational database management systems (e.g., MySQL), server management (Linux of Windows), adoption and installation of open-source code, web interface design, and basic programming skills
-Strong communication skills and a demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical colleagues
Preferred:
-Experience with Specify and/or Symbiota
-Experience with data management of Natural History Collections
For details and to apply, go to http://jobs.hr.wisc.edu/cw/en-us/job/496544/natural-history-museums-data-manager
To ensure consideration, applications must be received by November 22, 2017
For questions on the position, contact: Julie Olson Paul at jkolson2@wisc.edu