Media Arts

Research Assistant

Salary for the post is £26,407 pa inclusive of London Allowance.

Royal Holloway Media Arts has recently won two important awards for projects which will significantly enhance public and academic access to historic television and newsreel footage and the cataloguing metadata associated with it.

We now require a research assistant at post-doctoral level to assist Professor John Ellis and Dr Rob Turnock for at least the next two years. The research assistant will be employed mainly to recruit for, organise and report on a series of user group workshops; to research and write explanatory articles on some of the material; to organise an online research journal; and to promote the resources which are produced by the projects.

The projects are:

• EU Screen: a 3 year project (stated 1 October 2009) involving 26 European partners including 19 television archives. Working within the framework of the Europeana project, EU Screen aims to produce a consolidated database of the holdings of the 19 archives; to significantly increase the amount of material now publically available through the forerunner project Video Active (www.videoactive.eu) ; and to design user interfaces that respond to the needs of different user groups as revealed by the user group workshops. The project is funded by the EU e-content+ scheme
• Consolidating Moving Image and Sound Database Framework: a one-year AHRC-funded project (from 1 March 2010) to bring together the 9 separate databases held by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC) into a single format (which respects their differences) and to provide a novel search interface. The databases range from the BUND (UK newsreels) to the TRILT database derived from current UK TV listings, and also includes several collections of radio material

The successful candidate will have a background in television and film history along with a familiarity with the issues raised by cataloguing procedures and search interface design. She or he will also have experience of organising small group meetings and/or focus groups; of writing reports; of communicating with and writing for diverse audiences; and of working with remote project partners. A willingness to travel within Europe is essential.

Expected start would be at the beginning of May.

Informal enquiries can be sent to Prof John Ellis at John.Ellis@rhul.ac.uk.

Further details and an application form are available below or from the HR Department, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX; fax: 01784 274900; telephone 01784 414241 or email: recruitment@rhul.ac.uk

We positively welcome applications from all sections of the community

Safe receipt of all emailed application forms will be acknowledged

Unfortunately the time and cost involved means that it is not possible to acknowledge each application but if you require an acknowledgement please include a stamped addressed envelope. Only short listed candidates will be notified of the outcome of their applications; if you have not heard within six weeks of the closing date please assume that you have not been successful on this occasion.