CISER Employment Opportunities

Graduate Student Assistantship
Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research
Spring Semester 2012

Join CISER, the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research, as we develop the social science data services of the future! We are looking for a Cornell graduate student in a Ph.D. program with experience in the discovery, description, and manipulation/analysis of social science data, and an interest in assisting with projects to improve documentation and management of data ranging from public use to restricted-access.

The GRA will work with professional staff in CISER’s Data Services to develop user guides and teach workshops about major social science data products, and answer data-related questions from the Cornell community.

Data Archive

Under the general direction of the Research Data Management Librarian, generate/create technical and descriptive metadata for data holdings, including content types and file formats for data, documentation, and other files; and variable-level metadata for data holdings. Assign new subject headings and abstracts to studies in the CISER Data Archive catalog, for newly acquired studies and retrospectively.

Following given specifications, identify and flag/remove duplicative holdings from print collection of documentation, and from CISER Data Archive catalog and file system. Undertake basic file manipulation and metadata completion tasks for preparing datasets submitted by Cornell researchers and external data providers for inclusion in the CISER Data Archive. Migrate records from existing web pages/databases (e.g., http://ciser.cornell.edu/info/polls.shtml, http://ciser.cornell.edu/info/datasource.shtml) into CISER Data Archive catalog; create new records.

Following given specifications, scan printed user documentation, license agreements, order records, etc. for data holdings, and enter information for scanned files into CISER Data Archive catalog and/or other systems.

Cornell Secure Data Services

Assist in producing training materials and conducting workshops for researchers on the use of government and private statistical data files, such as the American Community Survey, American Housing Survey, National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health.

Carry out project and data management tasks in support of users of Cornell’s secure data services including the Cornell Restricted Access Data Center (CRADC), and the Census Research Data Center.

The assistantship covers the 2012 spring semester, with possible summer employment, and includes full tuition, health insurance, and a stipend.

Required:

• Graduate level experience in social science research, including numerical/statistical data.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and independent problem solving abilities.
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Conscientious attention to detail and accuracy.
• Willingness to work as a team with other administrative staff.

Preferred:

• Experience working with a variety of large social science datasets.
• Experience using CISER data and computing services a plus.

Contact: Warren Brown, Senior Research Associate, wab4@cornell.edu