BMRC Postdoctoral Fellow in Community Archives

Department
 

Library IT & DS - BMRC

About the Department
 

The Black Metropolis Research Consortium (BMRC) is a Chicago-based association of more than twenty universities, libraries, museums, community-based and government archives and other cultural heritage organizations, all of which contain archival records relevant to Black history and culture. The mission of the BMRC is to connect all who seek to document, share, understand and preserve Black experiences. The University of Chicago serves as the BMRC’s host institution.

Job Summary
 

This is a three-year position. Reporting to the Executive Director of the BMRC, the Postdoctoral Fellow in Community Archives will support the administration of the Mellon-funded BMRC-FOCAS project that works to empower community archives, diversify the field of archives, and make accessible the history of Black Chicago through paid graduate student internships at local community archives. The Fellow will gain valuable leadership experience while fostering the professional development of MA student interns working in community archives related to Black experiences in Chicago. The Fellow will also work with BMRC staff to support appropriate documentation of the internships and their deliverables including descriptive metadata of archival materials for the BMRC Archives Portal.

Responsibilities

• Manage the routine administrative tasks of the FOCAS grant project under the direction of the BMRC Executive Director. Including confirming payments for interns, drafting reports, and documenting activities.

• Supervise small cohort of interns  (4 to 5 people) working in up to five Chicago-area community archives, providing archival advice to support intern work in the community archives as needed.

• Works with BMRC staff to properly input the data collected and resources created at community archives into the BMRC Archives Portal a freely accessible, web-based platform that allows the public to access descriptive information on archival records related to Black Chicago held in BMRC member institution collections. The Portal increases intellectual access to heretofore underutilized collections about Black Chicago.

• Serve as a liaison between the community archives and BRMC, assisting in integrating interns into ongoing projects and initiatives.

• In collaboration with the Executive Director, contribute to the development of pedagogical resources and tools on community archives for LIS programs.

• Attend archives-focused conferences (AERI) annually as a representative of the FOCAS project and assist in coordination of BMRC-FOCAS presentations.

• Contribute to the FOCAS project’s public programming and outreach efforts.

• Attends meetings, training sessions, or other BMRC member-related functions as relevant.

• Plans and conducts quality assurance reviews and recommends changes as appropriate. 

• Interacts with faculty, researchers and staff for committee work or information.

• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications
 

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

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Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through < 2 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

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Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• PhD in Library and Information Science (degree must be earned by July 2024 and have been earned no earlier than 2019).

Experience:

• 1-2 years of experience in an archives or other cultural heritage setting.

Technical Skills or Knowedge:

• Familiarity with archival praxis and theory as understood by the field of Archival Studies (or interest and ability to learn).

• Experience working with archival processing conventions, description standards, and software (or interest and ability to learn).

• Knowledge of Black history and the history of Chicago.

• Familiarity with the Community Archives movement.

• Good communication skills.

• Experience conducting research in Archives and publishing research in academic journals.

Preferred Competencies

• Demonstrated sound judgment and effective decision-making skills.

• Critical thinking and analytical skills with a demonstrated ability to address a wide rand of complex serial related problems.

• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage complex tasks and projects.