[Nhcoll-l] Herbarium Digitization Technician at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB)

[Greg Wahlert]

*Herbarium Digitization Technician, University of California, Santa Barbara
*

*Summary of position and responsibilities: *The Cheadle Center for
Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) at UC Santa Barbara is
seeking applicants for an Herbarium Digitization Technician at the UCSB
Herbarium. The UCSB Natural History Collections—including the UCSB
Herbarium—comprise nearly a half million specimens that are housed at
CCBER. The Technician will focus on digitizing the Herbarium’s newly
organized collection: “Seaweeds of the Pacific Coast of North America.”
Most of our specimens are from the central California coast and Channel
Islands region, making them an excellent resource to understand macroalgal
diversity in the Point Conception area, a major biogeographic break on the
Pacific Coast. Digital data freely provided by the Cheadle Center is
heavily utilized by researchers around the world, and this position
supports our mission of education, research, and ecological restoration (
https://ccber.ucsb.edu/).

Under supervision of the Collection Manager, the Technician will be
responsible for the digitization of ca. 10,000 seaweed specimens, which
includes a variety of activities such as barcoding, imaging, transcribing
specimen labels, and georeferencing the specimens in our online Macroalgal
Portal database. Other duties include recruiting, training, and supervising
UCSB student interns and community volunteers to assist with the
digitization effort, both on-site and remotely; assessing quality of
digitized records; managing the images and digital records of the
collection; assisting with teaching an undergraduate course “Introduction
to Curation of Natural History Collections” twice a year; assisting with
herbarium pest management; seeking expert taxonomic identification of
specimens; and assisting with the planning and implementation of two
workshops on California seaweed identification.

The Technician will advance the digitization of an important herbarium
collection, which includes some of the earliest seaweed specimens collected
in California. This position is well suited for a detail- and goal-oriented
person who enjoys outreach with interns and the general public and
providing open-access biodiversity data to enable research and education.
We also seek a candidate who is eager to meet the challenges of the
pandemic and who will persevere in the face of a rapidly changing work
environment.

In response to the public health crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic,
the position will require the Technician to adapt, develop, and maintain
safe working conditions in the Herbarium as a top priority. Work will be
carried out by the Technician in isolated workspaces to maximize safety,
and the Technician will train interns and volunteers across secure glass
barriers that separate the Herbarium and offices from workspaces in the
building. The incumbent will work closely with CCBER staff, representatives
of the UCSB campus, and others to ensure proper implementation of safety
measures, as well as assist with developing new work procedures that meet
or exceed State and Campus safety requirements.

The incumbent will have the opportunity for career development in natural
history collections, taxonomy, and biodiversity informatics through
mentorship by CCBER scientists, curators, and visiting researchers and by
attending training workshops. The Technician will be encouraged to engage
in scholarly activities such as participating and organizing public
workshops and digitization events, co-teaching courses on natural history
collections, writing grant proposals to support UCSB student interns and
volunteers, disseminating findings at seminars and conferences, and
interacting with UCSB faculty and students.

This full-time position is funded for two years as part of an Institute of
Museum and Library Services project at the Cheadle Center. It is
anticipated that up to 100% of the work will be performed at the Herbarium
on the UCSB Campus, but this may change to a mix of remote and on-site
work, given the uncertainties surrounding the health crisis.

*Minimum requirements: *Graduation from high school or a General Education
Diploma or two years of college including courses in the natural, physical
or social sciences and at least two years’ experience curating specimens in
an herbarium or natural history museum setting, including experience with,
filing, imaging, digitizing, and georeferencing specimens; working with
biodiversity databases, including label transcription and georeferencing;
basic familiarity with biological classification, nomenclature, and
taxonomy; excellent organizational skills; demonstrated ability for
productivity and accuracy; and a willingness to innovate and to seek
solutions to the many logistical problems presented by the pandemic health
crisis.

*Desirable qualifications: *A bachelor’s or master’s degree in natural,
physical or social sciences or museum studies and a basic familiarity with
California seaweeds.

*Apply here*
<https://careerspub.universityofcalifornia.edu/psp/ucsb/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM.HRS_APP_SCHJOB.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=31&JobOpeningId=12710&PostingSeq=1>

Job ID: 12710
________________________________________________________
Gregory A. Wahlert, Ph.D.
Shirley Tucker Curator of Biodiversity Collections and Botanical Research
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration
Harder South, Bldg. 578, Room 1009
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA
e-mail: wahlert at ccber.ucsb.edu; rinorea at gmail.com; skype: gregory.wahlert
office phone: (805) 893-2401; cell: (805) 294-8685
________________________________________________________
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