1 May 2008
Expressions of interest sought
The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII - http://www.austlii.edu.au/) is employing new staff members for 2008. We encourage people who are suitably qualified for and interested in the positions described below to apply. Applicants may apply for more than one position.
The positions will be located primarily at AustLII's offices in Building 10 at the City Campus of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). AustLII is a joint facility of the Faculties of Law at UTS and the University of New South Wales (UNSW). AustLII staff are employed as employees of UTS. The positions are offered as full time positions but opportunities are available to accommodate the completion of tertiary studies or, in appropriate cases, on a part-time basis.
Applications for this round of AustLII's appointments will close on 30
May 2008. However, expressions of interest are welcome at any
time.
Background on AustLII
AutLII is the world' s largest provider of free access to legal
information, and an international leader in the development of free
access throughout the world. It is also a leading research centre
in legal information systems.
AustLII provides over 260 databases of Australian legal materials for free access. AustLII also operates the Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII), the Commonwealth Legal Information Institute (CommonLII) and the World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII). In combination with other members of the Free Access to Law Movement, they provide access to over 870 databases from 123 countries and territories.
APA(I) PhD Scholarship and Internship
PhD scholarship (APA(I) Award) $26,140 tax-free pa for three years plus internship is available.
This is funded from the ARC Linkage grant 2008-10 entitled 'Improving online case law within the constraints of free access through heuristic linking and resulting discovery mechanisms'. The focus of this research is on the difficult problems involved in the citation of the decisions of international courts and tribunals, and generalising the project's research findings to cover as many overseas courts and tribunals as possible.
In addition, an internship of up to $25,000 pa will be available for suitable candidates.
Qualifications: Applicants must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident or a New Zealand citizen; hold a relevant degree in computer science or IT and/or law preferably with first class honours, or with other indications of capacity to work at equivalent level, such as at least second class honours and/or significant research experience in industry; and not have completed a PhD or its equivalent.
Project Officers (up to 4 positions)
Project Officers work with other members of the database team and are involved in processing primary materials (case law, legislation and treaties) and secondary materials (eg law journals and law reform reports) to produce databases on AustLII and related systems.
The main responsibility of Project Officers is to prepare and process data using standard conversion tools. AustLII receives data feeds in a variety of formats from hundreds of data providers in Australia and internationally. Responsibilites of the position also include running existing processing scripts to convert 'standardised' data for online publication as well as customising them for different data formats. Some editorial work may need to be performed especially in processing secondary materials and in relation to scanning back issues of printed law journals and law reports. Some contact with AustLII's data providers may be required.
The positions currently available are funded in part by Australian Research Council Linkage and LIEF grants and by AusAID grants.
More than one position will be offered. The positions will focus on one or more of the following areas:
- development and maintenance of case law databases on AustLII and related LIIs;
- digitisation and backcapturing of printed materials including law journals, as well as extracting related metadata;
- development and maintenance of international databases for inclusion on AsianLII, CommonLII and WorldLII; and/or
- development and maintenance of subject-based libraries including the Australian IP Law Library (AustLII) and the Privacy Law Library (WorldLII).
Qualifications: Tertiary qualifications in Computer
Science (or equivalent degree) are essential, but applicants who are
near to completion of qualifications will be considered. A background
in law is desirable. A sound knowledge
of, and experience in the use of HTML and internet protocols is
essential.
Knowledge of Unix, Perl, and any text management tools is highly
desirable. Good communications skills are highly desirable.
Salary range: $40,000 to $60,000 pa full-time
Senior Researcher (Legal Scholarship Library)
This position is funded by the ARC LIEF Grant awarded for the project The Australian Legal Scholarship Library - enhancing research infrastructure for Australian law, which involves: (i) expanding the range of law journals included in the existing Law Journals Library; (ii) expanding the historical coverage of journals held; (iii) assisting other Law Schools in developing 'Law Research Series' databases; (iv) extending journal citation tracking facilities; and (v) examining possible options for creating an electronic publishing platform for Australian law journals.
The Senior Researcher will work with other members of the AustLII team and will take a leading role in ensuring the successful completion of the project. The Senior Researcher will need to liase with the investigators from various Universities involved in the project, and with the data providers contributing to this project.
Qualifications: Tertiary qualifications in Computer Science (or equivalent degree) are essential. Tertiary qualifications in law are highly desirable. Applicants require a sound knowledge of internet and related protocols. A sound knowledge of, and demonstrated experience in the use of Unix, HTML, XML, C and Perl is essential. Knowledge of and experience in the development of large scale publishing systems on the Internet is essential. Good communication skills (both verbal and written) are essential. Knowledge of other text processing languages and tools is highly desirable.
Salary range: $55,000 to $75,000 pa full-time