Administrative Guidelines for IATH Fellows

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

The Administrative Guidelines cover issues of the day-to-day concerns of running a project, such as payroll, staff, and calendars. The information offered here is intended to help projects run more smoothly.

1. IATH STAFF AND HOURS

The IATH staff will provide full-time assistance for fellows during the two-year fellowship at IATH and assistance as needed afterwards. Current staff contact information is here.

Our normal working hours are 8am to 5pm Monday through Friday, but fellows can get a key to the office for during library hours for themselves and for senior project staff. This key does not open the library's outside doors, either to get in or get out. Alderman's hours are posted on-line at http://www.lib.virginia.edu/hours/libhoursnf.html. Please note that once the library has closed you will be locked in, so pay attention to the library's schedule.

2. STAFF

Most projects require support staff, which is often comprised of graduate students and other faculty members. In some cases a project will work with faculty and students at different universities and institutions. Depending on your funding situtation, you may also hire outside consultants and contractors to carry out specific jobs. If you are planning a medium- or large-scale collaboration or you will be hiring several graduate students, we recommend that you start out with a small, core group and expand your staff gradually.

2.1. Payroll and Salaries

Payroll may be handled by the Administrative Specialist or by your department's staff, depending on who is administering the project's moneys. If you have negotiated a cost-sharing arrangement with your department, the Administrative Specialist and your department secretary will handle the paperwork. If you are not sure how or if you can pay someone, please check with the Administrative Specialist.

You should set your staff's wages within your budgetary limits and University guidelines. We can recommend a standard starting wage, depending on the student's technical skills. We can match the rate paid by individual departments, if necessary.

2.2. Student research assistants

Fellows can hire undergraduate and graduate students as research assistants and are encouraged to hire from inside their departments: those students are more likely to understand the particular scholarly issues in your project. It is equally important, however, that they understand the technical issues of your project. We will provide some technical training for students, but we strongly recommend that students have appropriate technical experience and aptitude. We will help you recruit students in other departments if you cannot find appropriate people.

Human resources' policies on student employment are on-line at http://www.hrs.virginia.edu/Policies/payroll/studemp.html. If you are unsure whether or not you can hire someone or you need to hire research assistants at other universities, please speak to the Administrative Specialist. Anyone who will be paid by IATH must meet with the Administrative Specialist when he or she is hired.

If it is absolutely necessary, you can hire research assistants who are not students, but it is a complicated process and costs more. We don't recommend it.

2.3. Project managers

Each project has a designated project manager. The project manager's duties can vary, but generally he or she coordinates the day-to-day work flow for the fellow, watches the project's current budget status, and acts as a liaison with IATH and the larger environment of the library. He or she manages the creation of text and image files and may also be responsible for maintaining the project's file structure and integrity, producing documentation, and other tasks, depending on the project. Some projects have used grant moneys to hire professional projects managers: talk to the Development Officer if you are interested in doing this.

2.5. Machines for project staff

Your project staff may require computers, scanners, software, etc. IATH has equipment for public use that you and your staff can reserve. You can also buy new equipment with your IATH money or grants. IATH provides limited technical support for your project's equipment.

3. OTHER UVA DIGITAL RESOURCES

Outside of IATH, there are other digital resources that you can draw on. The UVa Library has several electronic centers, including the Electronic Text Center and Robertson Media Center. The Library's web site has information about these and other electronic centers at http://www.lib.virginia.edu/ecenters.html. We ask that you discuss any outside work that you wish to do with us, however, so that you don't end up with redundant or unusable data.

4. BUDGET

4.1. IATH money

Every fellow gets a set amount of money from IATH to fund the two-year fellowship. You can spend it on students, equipment, services (scanning, photographic services, permission fees, etc.), software, supplies, travel, and so on. Generally, fellows spend about half of their IATH money on student wages.

4.2. Tracking and reporting expenses

The Administrative Specialist is responsible for the day-to-day management of IATH's budget. You'll need to talk to her about getting matching departmental funds for payroll, processing travel and equipment costs, etc.

4.3. Sharing moneys with institutions

If you are collaborating with other institutions, you may need to coordinate your budget with other faculty members. This has been done in the past but it can be tricky. Talk to the Administrative Specialist about the best way to do this.

5. CORPORATE TIME

Corporate Time Scheduling software is available for free to all UVa faculty and students. It's a helpful tool for coordinating meetings with your staff and with us. It's not required but we encourage all fellows and their upper-level staff to use it. Information is available at http://www.itc.virginia.edu/desktop/ctime/.

Other Guidelines documents: General and Technical