Atkins Fellows

All applications must be submitted through the jobs site for UNC Charlotte. We are no longer accepting applications for Summer 2023. Please consider applying next year!

• Applicants must have completed 24 credits (or two full semesters of work) toward a Master’s in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited program. We also accepts applications from those within one year of having completed such a program.
• Applicants can apply for more than one position.
• Applicants will need to upload a resume, cover letter, unofficial transcripts, and references with their application.
• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. to be considered for these positions.

Applicants may check on the status of their application(s) through the online system used to submit those applications. The Application Process page explains the status codes. You can also review the Program Dates tab to get a better understanding of the approximate timeline for decisions.

Below are the position descriptions for Summer 2023. We are no longer accepting applications for Summer 2023. Please consider applying next year!

Please review the requirements for applicants below.

• Applicants must have completed 24 credits (or two full semesters of work) toward a Master’s in Library and Information Science from an ALA-accredited program. We also accepts applications from those within one year of having completed such a program.
• Applicants can apply for more than one position.
• Applicants will need to upload a resume, cover letter, unofficial transcripts, and references with their application.
• Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. to be considered for these positions.

Collection Assessment Fellow
 

Academic libraries continually collect and analyze data about collections to inform decisions surrounding subscriptions. Faced with ongoing and projected budgetary constraints, annual increases to subscription costs, and growing demands for other services, academic libraries must be prepared to explore different models for supporting collections. The Collection Assessment Fellow will support the efforts of the Collection Services unit of Atkins Library to collect and analyze information that will help make decisions about continuing or canceling large journal (“Big Deal”) packages. The Fellow will use library-provided resources, data, and software to help create a method to identify which journal subscriptions are important to keep. The Fellow may use data points such as journals faculty have published in, have cited in their publications, or have been cited in, as well as usage and cost information tools.

Electronic resources collections and management is complex work that can be difficult to learn through an MLIS program. This fellowship will offer experience working with Collections Services faculty and staff, library usage data analytics tools and strategies, and approaches that libraries use to make decisions related to collections. It will also offer an introduction to essential elements of collections work, including library budgets, vendors, and systems. The work of this Fellow will contribute to an important decision-making process required of most academic libraries. This opportunity offers experience that can strengthen applications for positions relating to library electronic resources, collections, systems, data analysis and assessment. The experience using citation analysis databases and learning about library usage data will benefit someone interested in research services, subject liaison and digital scholarship positions.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• Experience with spreadsheets 
• Ability to analyze data
• Willingness to learn about usage, citations, pricing and other data points that help a library make collection decisions
• Detail-oriented
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Interest in library collections
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team 
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Conduct research on collection development, big deal packages, and initiatives by academic libraries to create alternatives to big deals packages
• Gather and organize citation data and cost/use data
• Analyze collected data with the use of software that can run scenarios for costs associated with the cancellation of individual titles
• Present journals or journal packages that have the most impact for our user community and are a priority to keep 
• Prepare a plan for collecting feedback from faculty about the level of importance of journals under review
   

Digital Media Literacy Fellow
 

Digital media literacy is essential to an informed citizenry and libraries have become actively involved in contributing to this education in recent years. Developing the skills to create and evaluate all forms of media prepares us to engage more effectively and responsibly in online and offline communication. The Digital Media Literacy Fellow will support the efforts of the Critical Media Literacy Collaborative, a group of librarians and campus partners that work to promote media literacy at UNC Charlotte. This fellow will work with librarians in the Research Services and Instruction and Curriculum Engagement units of the library and will collaborate with other members of the university involved in the Collaborative. This fellow will help to develop curriculum modules on various aspects of digital media literacy for faculty to incorporate into their courses through multiple formats. The Fellow will also conduct an environmental analysis of digital media literacy efforts at UNC Charlotte and at other colleges and universities. The Fellow will develop content for social media messaging that would inform and educate the campus community on digital media literacy topics.

This fellowship will offer experience developing active and engaging lesson plans as part of a cohesive curriculum and creating modules in a learning management system. The Fellow will also conduct strategic promotion and outreach by communicating a compelling message to a variety of audiences. On a larger scale, this fellowship offers experience guiding a campus educational campaign on a relevant and important global issue. The work of this fellow will help further our efforts to support digital media literacy on the UNC Charlotte campus.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• Experience developing a lesson plan or an educational program
• Basic understanding of or interest in digital media literacy
• Experience with a variety of social media platforms
• Ability to work in a dynamic, unstructured environment
• Ability to take a complex project and hone it to a focused, organized product
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop 4-6 engaging lesson plans that rely upon active learning strategies and visual elements
• Learn and utilize the Canvas learning management system and other creation tools or resources to develop module content
• Consider ways to encourage adoption of modules in various campus courses
• Investigate how other similar groups supporting digital media literacy position themselves within their university and develop partnerships
• Identify digital media literacy topics that would work well or be appropriate for social media posts
• Research effective social media strategies and platforms to achieve high engagement 

Open Access Fellow
 

Many academic libraries host institutional repositories for the open access publications of their faculty, staff and students. The Open Access Fellow will help increase engagement with the UNC Charlotte institutional repository, Niner Commons, and open access publishing through research, data management, workflow development, and outreach planning. This project will help faculty understand the open access (OA) terms of scholarly journals, make use of user-oriented resources on challenging topics such as copyright and OA policies, and increase the visibility of their scholarship. The project will also contribute to increased engagement with Niner Commons by raising awareness about green self-archiving and encouraging postprint deposits–a vastly underutilized content area in Niner Commons. As the Open Access Fellow, you will help build a campus environment of open access scholarship, better positioning it for adopting an open access policy. 

This project is ideal for MLIS students interested in open access publishing and scholarly communications. It involves a variety of competencies commonly found in professional library positions, including research, resource development, and outreach. The Fellow will work with the Digital Scholarship and Innovation team at Atkins Library and collaborate with library faculty and staff from Collection Services, Research and Instructional Services, and Special Collections and University Archives.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• An openness and willingness to learn new platforms
• Comfort with troubleshooting and reading user forums for technology platforms
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Experience and/or interest in marketing and outreach
• Knowledge of or coursework in open access principles and practices
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community. 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Create an “author toolkit” to increase open access education and encourage open access publishing among UNC Charlotte scholars, with resources to include:
  • Resources on green OA, to include a spreadsheet of open access policies by journal, which faculty can use when publishing research and identifying possible journals for publication
  • Resources on understanding copyright, including what to review in an author contract before signing
  • Guidance on funding for article processing charges (APCs) and publishing discounts, to include best practices and potential sources
  • Definitions of what open access is and research-based evidence of the benefits of publishing open access
  • Conduct an environmental scan of the resources other universities offer around publishing and scholarly communication and recommend content areas and resources we should develop
• Evaluate potential platforms for communicating information about publishing and scholarly communications 
• Complete training on OpenRefine, basic web development, and APIs in order to navigate the Sherpa Romeo database to identify journals’ OA policies and to develop the author toolkit
• Develop an outreach plan for marketing the author toolkit

Textbook Affordability Fellow

The Textbook Affordability Fellow will support efforts to reduce course material costs for students at UNC Charlotte by promoting Open Educational Resources (OERs) and library provided materials. This fellow will work with the Engineering and Open Education Librarian, and various projects will necessitate collaborating with our Associate Dean for Collection Services, Head of Strategic Analytics and Special Projects, and other subject librarians. This fellow will help to create, collect, and organize outreach materials for open education, develop a consultation/collaboration process for faculty/librarians regarding switching course curriculum materials to OERs, and develop a draft website design promoting the libraries textbook affordability services and class resources provided through the library, based on other successful models of open education outreach. In addition, this fellow will help develop an assessment model of our outreach efforts and work on return on investment (ROI) for work we’ve accomplished not necessarily tied to simple metrics. These duties will require the fellow to search and understand the international OER landscape, organize and design accessible collections of various educational materials for faculty and librarians, and help track valuable efforts for longitudinal assessment.

This fellowship will offer experience working on website design, assessment theory in context, and outreach to multiple constituencies. More importantly, this fellowship offers an immersion in open pedagogy and open ethos, which are crucial for communicating and advocating for quality and affordable education. The work of this fellow will help further our efforts to encourage faculty to consider no-cost course materials and understand the social context for its urgency.

Preferred Education/Training, Experience, Skills/Competencies:

• Experience with or understanding of web design and/or website development
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent time management, analytical abilities, and creative problem solving skills
• Curiosity about and philosophical inclination toward open education
• Creativity and positivity
• Experience initiating or contributing to sustainable projects
• Commitment to principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace, academic libraries, and the community 

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Identify open creation or adaptation possibilities and workflows for curriculum materials
• Create, collect, and organize outreach materials
• Develop a consultation/collaboration process for faculty and librarians regarding switching course materials
• Gather information from successful library programs nationally about their processes for outreach and engagement. Help to develop a timeline for programmatic outreach.
• Help to draft a website design for education and services on open education modeled after several successful universities
• Develop an assessment model for our efforts
• Work on ROI for work that we have already done

The Atkins Fellows Program is hosted by Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte. Atkins Library serves the students, faculty, and staff of UNC Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina. With current enrollment at nearly 30,000, UNC Charlotte is the fastest growing campus in the UNC system. Never been to our campus? Take a virtual tour.

Charlotte is also one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Our light rail system makes it possible for fellows to complete the fellowship and enjoy the city without a car. As North Carolina’s urban research university, UNC Charlotte provides access to all of the amenities that you expect of a city with the benefit of being situated in driving distance to the mountains and the ocean. This is an exciting time to live in Charlotte and work at Atkins Library and we hope you will consider joining us.

Our campus community is comprised of people who represent the wide breadth of gender and sexual identities, races and ethnicities, faith traditions, nationalities, and other social categories and backgrounds.  These varied identities and experiences enrich the University as a whole. UNC Charlotte and Atkins Library strive to celebrate this diversity, and to sustain an inclusive and welcoming environment for all. In order to advance this vision, the Atkins Fellows program encourages applications from all underrepresented groups.

The Atkins Fellows program typically begins the 3rd or 4th week of May and ends the last week of July or first week of August. Fellows will be expected to work a full-time schedule for 10 weeks total, with specific hours and availability determined by their project supervisor(s).

Important Dates:

Mid-December - Positions posted

Early February - Begin reviewing applications
Note: Applications submitted by February 8, 2023 will receive first consideration for the Summer 2023 program.

Mid-February - early March - phone interviews with selected candidates

Mid-March - Notification to applicants

May 29 - Fellows Program begins

August 4 - Fellows Program ends

Participants in this program will be paid at an hourly rate ($20/hour) for ten weeks of forty hours per week. Paychecks will be issued by direct deposit every two weeks, two Fridays after the end of each pay period.

 

Participants will also receive a $1,500 housing and transportation stipend to help with the cost of moving to Charlotte for the fellowship.

 

Note: The hourly rate and housing/transportation stipend will be taxed with each paycheck.

Fellows can choose to live on-campus or off-campus. Intern Housing is for students enrolled at a college or university and working full-time in an internship or job in the Charlotte area. Exceptions do apply for recently graduated students. If you wish to live in campus housing you will need to complete a separate application after being selected for the program. Costs for summer 2020 were $26.92-$27.82 per night.  Learn more about campus housing options. 

 

Fellows are not required to live on-campus and may seek other local accommodations. Please contact the program coordinator to learn about off-campus housing options.

I am graduating this Spring.  Can I still apply for the program?
Yes.  Recent graduates and those that will be graduating in the upcoming Spring semester are welcome to apply to the program. 

The website indicates that applicants must have completed 24 credits (or two full semesters of work) toward a MLIS from an ALA-accredited program. By when must we complete those credits?
Any courses you are taking this Spring semester count toward the 24 credits. There is also some flexibility with that requirement if you are just a few credits short.

I live in another state.  Is it feasible for me to apply and participate in the program?
Yes. Fellows have joined us from library programs across the country. You can pursue on-campus or off-campus housing options in Charlotte and we do our best to help you. You could also feasibly move here for the summer and navigate the city without a car (several have done so) because Charlotte has a light rail system.

Can I participate in the program virtually?
The program requires that you live in the Charlotte area and work on-campus full-time for the length of the fellowship.

I applied for one of the Atkins Fellows positions. How can I check on the status of my application?
Applicants may check on the status of their application(s) through the online system used to submit those applications. The Application Process page explains the status codes. You can also review the Program Dates tab to get a better understanding of the approximate timeline for decisions.