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Oral History Intern, Boston Public Library and Boston Research Center, Boston, MA (CLOSED)

Description:

The oral history internship is an excellent chance to contribute your voice to local history projects while honing your oral history skills. Duties may include but are not restricted to the following tasks: conducting oral history interviews, editing transcripts of recorded interviews, light processing and/or indexing of oral histories, performing some basic editing of video and/or audio files, contributing to a public-facing libguide, and/or supporting the development of oral history tools for public use.

While experience interviewing or using oral history interviews is a bonus, it is not necessary, as interns will undergo training.

This position is remote as a safety precaution amidst the current COVID-19 pandemic; due to the changing nature of this situation, there may be flexibility in future work patterns.

Hours: 15 hours/week; weekly schedule to be determined pending a conversation with the intern supervisor.

Salary: $25/hour

Responsibilities:

  • Conducting oral history pre-interviews and interviews via Zoom
    • Within the scope of a predefined project, interns will conduct a recorded interview with a predetermined narrator or storyteller; this record will become part of NUASC’s permanent collections, and will be made publicly accessible via digital archives tools. Prior to the interview itself, interns will conduct an informal pre-interview conversation with the narrator to help both parties define expectations, test technology, and unearth some avenues for inquiry. Interns will always have the direct support of a BRC staff member throughout pre-interviews and interviews.
  • Editing oral history transcripts
    • Interns with an eye for detail will review recorded interviews and their corresponding transcripts, editing for spelling and punctuation errors
  • Light processing of oral histories
    • Following an interview, the intern will document key terms, names, places, etc., that will aid catalogers as they describe the interview. The intern will then populate a spreadsheet with these terms.
  • Indexing oral history recordings
    • An interview index (also called a time log or interview log) is a way to capture important information from a completed interview. Interns will complete a template that breaks the interview into small sections, often based on conversation topics, and summarizes those topics. Each summary is documented with its corresponding timestamp.
  • Basic editing of audio and/or video files
    • Recorded interviews may require some minor editing. Interested interns may be trained to use editing software.

About the BRC

The Boston Research Center (BRC), based in the Northeastern University Library, is a digital community history and archives lab. Working in partnership with the Boston Public Library and the Northeastern University Archives & Special Collections, the BRC works to provide a fuller picture of our city’s history by bringing together historical materials, digitizing them, and remixing and re-combining them with current data to tell the stories of Boston’s vital yet underrepresented communities.

About the BPL

Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library is a pioneer of public library service in America. It was the first large free municipal library in the United States, the first public library to lend books, the first to have a branch library, and the first to have a children’s room. As a City of Boston historic cultural institution, Boston Public Library today features a central library and twenty-five neighborhood branches, serving nearly 4 million visitors per year and millions more online. Boston Public Library is a department of the City of Boston, under the leadership of Mayor Michelle Wu.

How to Apply:

  • Interested candidates should reach out to Dory Klein ([email protected]) with a resume and cover letter
  • BRC/BPL staff will interview interested interns to find a good fit for their role and project
  • Interns must submit to a Criminal Offenders Record Information (CORI) check
  • BRC/BPL staff will train interns in the following:
    • Oral history interviewing techniques informed by an ethical and legal framework that prioritizes the rights and needs of narrators and their communities;
    • Conducting oral history interviews via Zoom;
    • Transcript editing;
    • Documenting interview metadata;
    • Indexing interviews
    • Editing audio files in Audacity