iSchool MLIS students with interests in audiovisual archiving, please consider applying for this amazing opportunity!
Media Archiving Fellowship Opportunity (Paid)
The School of Information at Kent State University is pleased to announce its partnership with GBH, a leader in public broadcasting and media archiving, and WKSU, public radio station serving Northeast Ohio, to provide the Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship to a current Kent State MLIS student with interests in audiovisual archives. The Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship, generously supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, was founded in 2017 by GBH and several LIS programs to fill the increasing need for skilled practitioners to manage archival audiovisual media. The Kent State Fellow will receive in-depth training and gain real world paid experience in digitization and management of media archives, and will receive mentoring from GBH and other partners to facilitate the Fellow’s integration into the audiovisual archiving community.
Expectations and Compensation:
The PBPF Fellowship begins in August 2022 and concludes in May 2023. In August 2022, PBPF award recipients will travel to Boston to attend Immersion Week, hosted by GBH. This 5-day training session will introduce the student to many aspects of media preservation and archiving and prepare them to work hands-on with archival audiovisual media. Starting in September 2022 and continuing through May 2023, the Fellow will work with staff from local broadcaster WKSU to inventory, assess, digitize, and catalog at least 60 hours of material from the station’s collections. In addition, the Fellow will create a handbook and other training materials that can be used by future interns at WKSU who wish to gain experience in media archiving, as well as develop a digital preservation plan for WKSU that will help the station continue preserving and making accessible their collections after the Fellowship has concluded. During the fellowship period (September 2022-May 2023), the Fellow should expect to work 16 hours per week (for a total of 448 hours). Fellows will not be required to work during university breaks. As compensation, the Fellow will receive a regular stipend for their work, distributed bi-weekly, for a total of $10,304 (the hourly rate for the internship is $23). Digitization activities will be supported by the School of Information, which will provide the required space and technologies to accomplish this work (i.e., a digitization workstation and storage for digitized materials).
In addition to digitizing WKSU collections, the Fellow will attend the Association of Moving Image Archives (AMIA) conference in November 2022 to present on their work. At the end of the fellowship period, the student will also teach a workshop aimed at fellow MLIS students interested in audiovisual archiving. Most travel expenses related to Immersion Week in August 2022 and the AMIA conference in November 2022 will be covered by GBH, including airfare, accommodations, and meals.
In addition to the financial compensation mentioned above, students can expect additional support and mentoring from their Fellowship faculty advisor (Dr. Karen Gracy), and via the Fellowship’s collaborative support network consisting of GBH, all Fellowship students and programs, local advisors, and advisors from other leading organizations in the media archiving community such as the Association of Moving Image Archivists, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and the Bay Area Video Coalition).
How to Apply:
If you are interested in applying for this Fellowship opportunity, please fill out the Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship application form. In addition to completing the form, you must also submit a resume/CV and a brief one-page statement (no more than 500 words) describing your interest in the Fellowship and how your past experiences demonstrate that interest. The prospective fellow will be selected based on their qualifications, career goals in media archiving, and understanding of the media perspectives of WKSU (according to its mission statement, “WKSU creates a shared civic and cultural life that connects communities through a diverse mix of media and that extends the heritage of Kent State University”). In the interests of diversifying the media archiving community, students from historically marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply. Evaluation of scholarship applications begins February 15, 2022. Send one-page statements and any questions to Dr. Karen Gracy at kgracy@kent.edu.
Eligibility:
Please note that the nature of this Fellowship opportunity requires the recipient to reside in the Northeast Ohio area or be willing to relocate there for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Fellow must also be currently enrolled as a full-time graduate student in the Kent State MLIS program (at least 8 credits in fall 2022 and spring 2023 terms).