PhD position in searching digital archives

The UK National Archives seeks to collect and secure the future of the public record in all its forms and to make it as accessible as possible. We are seeking a PhD student to help shape the future of information exploration and discovery in big digital archives.

There is a clear need for cultural heritage institutions (archives, libraries, and museums) to provide systems that go beyond keyword-based search and support more diverse information seeking behaviors, such as browsing and exploration of large collections. Entities, such as people, places, organizations, and events, can be extracted from the archive and linked to form a network that users can explore in addition to navigating the content directly. This project aims to investigate the performance of entity-centric methods and develop prototype systems to better understand how entity-based networks can support users' exploration of large digital archives.

Funding & eligibility:

The studentship is tenable for a maximum of three years, starting October 2015, and is available only to Home/EU students. It covers fees and a stipend (£14,057 per year in 2015/16). UK students are eligible for a full award covering fees and a maintenance grant if they meet residency criteria. EU students are eligible for a fees-only award unless they have been resident in the UK for 3 years immediately prior to the award.

Candidates should:

• have (or expect to have by Autumn 2015) a good master's degree in computer science, library and information science, or a related discipline with at least 60% weighted mean and 60% in the dissertation component.
• If not graduated from a majority English-speaking country, provide evidence of a recognized English language qualification equivalent to IELTS 6.5 overall with 6.0 in each component.

Applicants should have familiarity with quantitative and qualitative research methods, the ability to work independently, excellent written and oral communication skills, knowledge of formal research processes, including writing and presenting results. They should also have strong analytical skills, programming skills, and a genuine interest in designing, building, and publishing innovative approaches and systems to explore large-scale archive data.

University of Sheffield

N/A

Please mention NLP People as a source when applying.

More information: If you wish to discuss this studentship, contact Prof. Paul Clough. Further information can be found at:

Tagged as: Academia , NLP , Tagging , United Kingdom