Digitizing Documents in Order to Facilitate Access

As a result of the June technology workshop, and after talking it over with my Department’s chair, I propose to: (a) create a searchable digital collection of all the research honors papers written by our majors and (b) conduct a web-based digital job search for two tenure-track positions.

(a) Senior Seminar

This course is taught every Fall. Early on in the semester students are asked to research the existing collection of Research Honors papers for potential topics and examples of empirical methodologies. Currently we use a folder listing the author, adviser and title of each of the 91 articles, spanning 27 years, comprising the collection. Creating a CARLI Digital Collection we will digitize the papers, and most importantly, tag the documents so that they can be searched for keywords. The pedagogical goal is to facilitate a more comprehensive and practical access to the collection, enriching new projects.

(b) Digital Job Search

During the 2007-2008 academic year the Economics Department will be conducting two simultaneous job searches. Past experience has showed us that requesting a cover letter, a writing sample, academic transcripts, letters of reference, teaching evaluations and so on, multiplied times a number of applicants well into triple digits, generates a massive volume of paper. This time around we expect to receive twice as much. Since only full applications are considered, yet only less than one hundred make the first cut, a vast amount of documentation is effectively discarded. By requesting job applicants to submit their materials on-line and by using the Luminis platform we will expedite the sorting-out of applications by our office manager, allow off-campus work by the search committee, and reduce the amount of paper involved in these searches.