Employer Details

The BC Library Association administers and manages the BC Summer Reading Club (BC SRC), a free literacy program that connects children with libraries and reading opportunities throughout the summer. Offered in libraries across the province, the program is designed and delivered locally, allowing each library to tailor its approach to the unique needs of its community. BC SRC promotes literacy and fosters a lifelong love of reading through programming that is fun, educational, inclusive, and community-focused.

To support access and inclusion for children across British Columbia, BC SRC also offers an online reading tracker (app.bcsrc.ca). This option enables children who prefer digital tools, have learning, health, or safety needs, or are unable to visit their library regularly to fully participate in the summer reading experience.

Contract Details

We’re looking for a web developer to support the annual updates to the BC SRC Online Reading Tracker, which includes the integration of new style elements and assets, as well as an application reset and the loading of annual content.

This is a freelance contract with a variable time commitment. The annual requirement is estimated to be approximately 20-30 hours, with the majority of the work happening in April-May. The timing may fluctuate during periods necessitating new functionality development or substantial modifications to existing features, which would be supported with additional hours.

Key Responsibilities

• Execute annual updates to the BC Summer Reading Club Ruby on Rails application, including the integration of new assets and style elements.
• Manage the annual application reset to onboard a new cohort of users.
• Load and manage annual content, such as updating library branches, schools, and book lists.
• Oversee the deployment, infrastructure management, and ongoing maintenance of the application.
• Assume comprehensive technical ownership for the entirety of the application.
• Collaborate with BCLA staff to define, develop, and implement new features and enhancements.

Qualifications

• Expertise in Ruby on Rails: Extensive knowledge of the Ruby on Rails framework, including its MVC architecture, ActiveRecord for database interaction, Action Pack for routing and controllers, and Action View for templating.
• Development Experience: A minimum of 1-2 years of hands-on experience in Ruby on Rails development, coupled with a strong foundational understanding of Ruby language fundamentals and Rails conventions.
• Database Proficiency: Proven experience working with relational databases, such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
• DevOps Experience: Prior experience and comfort in managing a small application hosted on a cloud server. Familiarity with dokku, an open-source PaaS tool, would be an asset.
• Professional Skills: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively, prioritize tasks, and meet deadlines.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility Statement

BCLA encourages applications from candidates who bring a variety of lived experiences. We strive to be an equitable, inclusive organization, while recognizing that we need to continue to learn and evolve to make that a consistent reality. BCLA Board and staff are committed to becoming an anti-racist organization and are actively working toward that goal. We also identified accessibility as a key priority for us even before the Accessible BC legislation was passed and are working to improve our internal and external accessibility.