Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 193.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2023-09-07 16:44:03+00:00
        From: Mia <mia.ridge@gmail.com>
        Subject: Product owner, RSE and test engineer jobs in the Universal Viewer team at the British Library

In case you or someone you know might be interested in joining a new
product team at the British Library dedicated to improving the Universal
Viewer, I'm sharing some information (that will be a blog post) about the
roles.

Universal Viewer product team posts at the British Library

The British Library has been a leading contributor to IIIF
<https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2015/june/iiif-consortium-to-improve-image-based-resources-on-the-web>,
the International Image Interoperability Framework <https://iiif.io/>, and
the Universal Viewer <https://universalviewer.io/> for many years. We're
about to take the next step in this work - and you can join us!

In this post, Dr Mia Ridge, product owner for the Universal Viewer (UV)
2015-18, and Dr Rossitza Atanassova, UV business owner 2019-2023, share
some background information on how new posts advertised for a UV product
team will help shape the future of the Viewer at the Library and contribute
to international work on the UV, IIIF standards and activities.

The creation of a Universal Viewer product team is part of wider
infrastructure changes at the British Library, and marks a shift from
contributing via specific UV development projects
<https://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2016/12/new-viewer-digitised-collections-british-library.html>
to thinking of the Viewer as a product. We'll continue to work with the Open
Collective <https://opencollective.com/universalviewer> while focusing on
Library-specific issues to support other activities across the
organisation.

Staff across the Library have contributed to the development of the
Universal Viewer, including curators, digitisation teams and technology
staff. Staff engage through bespoke training
<https://training.iiif.io/iiif-bl-workshop/March2023.html> 
delivered by the IIIF Consortium <https://iiif.io/>, participation at IIIF 
workshops and conferences
<https://www.bing.com/search?q=iiif+yeah&cvid=0ae1b32c53b1475b9f3b415a67aaf226&aqs=edge..69i57j0l3j69i64j69i11004.3823j0j9&FORM=ANAB01&PC=U531>
and experimentation with new tools, such as the digital storytelling tool
Exhibit, to engage wide audiences
<https://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2021/10/you-can-now-make-your-own-online-bl-exhibit.html>.

Other Library work with IIIF includes a collaboration with Zooniverse to
enable items to be imported to Zooniverse via IIIF manifests
<https://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2022/04/importing-images-into-zooniverse-with-a-iiif-manifest-introducing-an-experimental-feature.html>,
making crowdsourcing more accessible to organisations with IIIF items. Most
recently with funding from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation we updated the UV
to play audio  <https://www.bl.uk/projects/save-our-sounds>from the British
Library sound collections <https://sounds.bl.uk/>.

Over half a million items from the British Library's collections are
already available via the Universal Viewer,
<https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/iiif> and that number grows all the
time. Work on the UV has already let us retire around 35 other image
viewers, a significant reduction in maintenance overheads and creating a
more consistent experience for our readers.

However, there's a lot more to do! User expectations change as people use
other document and media viewers, whether that's other IIIF tools like
Mirador or the latest commercial streaming video platforms. We also need to
work on some technical debt, ensure accessibility standards are met,
improve infrastructure, and consolidate services for the benefits to users.
Future challenges include enhancing UV capabilities to display annotations,
formats such as newspapers, and complex objects such as 3D.

If you'd like to work in collaboration with an international open source
community on a viewer that will reach millions of users around the world,
one of these jobs may be for you!

Product Owner (job reference R00000196)

Ensure the strategic vision, development, and success of the project. Your
primary goal will be to understand user needs, prioritise features and
enhancements, and collaborate with the development team and community to
deliver a high-quality open source product.

Research Software Engineer (job reference R00000197)

Help identify requirements, and design and implement online interfaces to
showcase our collections, help answer research questions, and support
application of novel methods across team activities.

Senior Test Engineer (job reference R00000198)

Help devise requirements, develop high quality test cases, and support
application of novel methods across team activities

To apply please visit the British Library recruitment site:
<https://ce0752li.webitrent.com/ce0752li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC179GF.open?WVID=5071482BMD>

Applications close on 25 September 2023. Interview dates are listed in the
job ads.

Questions? Drop us a line at digitalresearch@bl.uk.


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