Dear colleagues,

Let me tell you a little more about the Lyterati CV conversion process.
Once again, assistant professors are supposed to get their CVs to me
by September 30 (I already have most of them), associate
professors are supposed to get their CVs to me by December 15,
and full professors are supposed to get their CVs to me by March 31.
(Emeriti and lecturers are not currently involved, though they may be
brought into the process next year.)  Please don't wait till the
deadlines.  The sooner you get things to me, the sooner I can
help you with various things to produce the best possible outcome.

Why is this being done?

The goal of this whole process (according to Faculty Affairs in
the Provost's office --- this was not our idea) is to simplify
annual FAR reporting, to uniformize CVs for purposes such
as salary review and promotions, and to make it possible to
enter all CV data in a single place and not have to retype it
each time you need a specialized type of CV for some purpose
such as a grant application.  Instead, you'll be able to go into
Lyterati, tell the interface what you want, press a button, and
receive a customized CV for whatever purpose you want.

What do you have to do?

At this stage, the minimum you have to do is to send me your
CV in latex or in PDF format.  I'd prefer latex because it's easier
to edit --- if I spot something that's in the wrong category, I can
then take care of it without pestering you to produce a new version.
What will happen after this is that the Lyterati employees will
take your CV and transcribe all the information into the appropriate
sections of the database.  Once this is done, they will make
your listing available to you for editing.  But the fewer errors
they make at the beginning, the less you'll have to correct later.

Please note that the data entry people are not academics; they are
simply data entry technicians.  So if the labels in your CV do not
match what they are used to, they are liable to put things in the
wrong place.  To minimize the chances of this happening, please change
all the section headings in your CV to match the ones on the Lyterati
templates. (The order of the sections and the section numbers will be
ignored.  They will also ignore fonts, spacing, etc., so whatever you
have already is fine.  Finally, just leave out any section in the
chart that doesn't apply to you.  This should be at least half of the
chart.)  There is a latex template here that you can adapt.

Additional issues:

I've discussed this process extensively with the Faculty Affairs
office, with Scott, and with Udaya Shankar in the CS department (who
is my counterpart over there).  We came up with a few guidelines to
help you out:

1. Generally speaking, if you are not sure what category something
goes in, use the first of the two categories.  Example: if you've
written an advanced book that could also be used as a graduate
textbook, put it under Books Authored instead of Textbooks.  But
undergraduate textbooks should go under Textbooks.

2. There are two headings for fellowships (II.K.1 and V.1).  Udaya and
I discussed this and came to the following agreement.  Purely
honorific fellowships (like Fellow of SIAM or AMS) should go under
V.1.  Purely monetary fellowships should go under II.K.1.  Honorary
fellowships that also come with substantial funding (like Sloan
Research Fellowships) should go in both places.

3. The chart has sections for both Professional Service (IV.B) and
External Service (IV.C).  The distinction between these is a bit
blurry, but generally speaking, service to the mathematical profession
(AMS, SIAM, etc.) should go in IV.B and service to K-12 education,
science fairs, state and local governments, non-profits, etc., should
go in IV.C.

4. There are two sections in the chart for conferences.  Invited
talks, etc., should go in II.E.  Organization of conferences should
mostly go in IV.B.7.

All in all, this whole process is a bit of an unknown, so just do the
best you can.  Thanks for your cooperation.


Jonathan
(as part of my job as Assoc Chair for APT)