Job Description

The HistoryMakers seeks to hire full-timeVideo Oral History Processors/Publishersto audit/edit, segment, write descriptive narrative descriptions and archivally process the life oral history interviews in The HistoryMakers Collection that are housed permanently at the Library of Congress and making accessible to users worldwide via The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Those hired must have a background in African American, American, women and gender studies, anthropology, social history, economics, politics, STEM/medicine, the arts, library or information science or other related fields and will work as  part of a publishing team that will process and add 40-45 interviews/month to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive (each interview averages 4-6 hours in length). The person hired must have excellent writing skills. He/she must also have prior experience as a proofreader/editor and be an expert researcher and writer who can accurately describe in a concise and accurate manner the contents of each videotaped segment. The interviews cover 20th century history interviews across a wide variety of occupations, geographic areas and fields (i.e. STEM, law, art, education, music, etc.). The Processor/Publisher will be responsible for:

1. Watching the assigned interviews in The HistoryMakers Video Oral History Collection (www.thehistorymakers.org) and proofreading each interview under a 3-4 interviews per week quota system;
2. Audit/editing the assigned interviews and dividing the interviews with chapter headings to provide for easy access;
3. Writing abstracts for each 30 minutes videotaped section of the assigned interview;
4. Performing quality control testing on the assigned interviews and uploading them to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive;
5. Evaluating each assigned interview in accordance with The HistoryMakers guidelines and procedures;
6. Choosing video clips and assigning clip titles that reflect the clip’s contents for The HistoryMakers website; ‘
7. Writing social media posts and blogs that reflect the content of the interviews;
8. Working as a part of a team in order to process and add 40-50 interviews per month to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive.

Candidates must have strong administrative skills (type 65 wpm), be naturally detailed, and possess superior proofreading and organizational skills. Prior experience with detailed paper file, desktop and electronic file management along with prior experience working with databases a must. Candidates must also demonstrate their ability to have sustained focus and an interest in furthering The HistoryMakers mission and growth.

Salary and Benefits

Salary begins at $40,000 per year. The HistoryMakers also offers a competitive benefits package that includes 403(b), PTO, health, vision and dental insurance, tuition reimbursement and school loan repayment assistance.

The HistoryMakers

The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive(www.thehistorymakers.org), is a one-of-a-kind collection, housed permanently at the Library of Congress. Its website (www.thehistorymakers.org), accessed by millions worldwide, is sited in Wikipedia and used as a “go to” reference tool. Its digital archive has been licensed by colleges, universities, K-12 schools and public libraries for use by faculty, students and patrons and is growing in popularity in the wake of COVID19 and the focus on online learning. Within the next few years, The HistoryMakers will become the digital repository for the Black experience: providing much needed content, role models, success pathways and frameworks for a 21st century citizenry that has become increasingly less tolerant, divisive and economically and educationally disparate. 

Please send resumes to:

The HistoryMakers

1900 S. Michigan Ave. | Chicago, IL 60616

[email protected]

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