Eatonville Community Archivist Position
The Call
With the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Association to Preserve Eatonville Committee, Inc. (PEC) seeks a creative, empathetic, collaborative, self-motivated, enthusiastic professional for the position of Eatonville Community Archivist.
Working closely with the curatorial teams of PEC and the Orange County Regional History Center, and reporting to the Director of PEC, the Community Archivist will serve as project manager and coordinator for a Mellon Foundation grant that services PEC’s existing Eatonville Community Archive Collections, as well as any prospective collections identified during the project period, and related projects and additional duties as needed, including outreach and exhibits.
This work is to be conducted by a professional, full-time archivist. The resulting collections will be temporarily housed at the Orange County Regional History Center and made publicly available when possible until a suitable community archive facility is created at the national historic site on the Hungerford Property. Ownership of intellectual property will remain with its community creators through a Creative Commons license while ownership of the chattels will remain in PEC until a permanent archival home is established. The Archivist will offer several outreach and engagement workshops geared toward promoting and gauging donor education and awareness of Eatonville’s historic assets. The Community Archivist will articulate the Collection philosophy to all project stakeholders including but not limited to community members, other archival staff including those at OCRHC, and other partners.
Salary and Benefits
This is an At-Will, Term-Limited, One-Year Appointment. Salary is in the $55,000-$60,000 range, commensurate with qualifications and experience. An additional benefits stipend equivalent to approximately 30% of salary will be provided as the successful candidate will need to secure their own healthcare and other benefits currently not offered through PEC.
The Duties
The Community Archivist will:
Serve as project manager for the grant outcomes and products, principally rehousing, describing, preserving and conserving existing collections currently in storage, with the goal of transferring them to OCRHC within the project year
Create related finding aids
Digitize selected portions of the Collections and facilitate cloud storage
Ensure clear title and manage permissions for open access
Collaborate with OCRHC to facilitate seamless transfer to offsite storage and conduct processing and remediation according to OCRHC protocols and standards
Contribute to strategic planning and vision shaping for the Town of Eatonville, future archives and users of the Zora Neale Hurston Campus for the Arts, the Humanities and the Sciences.
Solicit community feedback, help prepare project evaluation reports, and carry out rigorous budget tracking.
Qualifications
Required
ALA-accredited master’s degree in library or information science, or a related advanced degree. Two years’ of professional experience in an archive or special collections, including processing and description experience. Demonstrated understanding of the principles that dictate archival appraisal, description, and reference as well as interest or experience in applying these principles in a community archival framework. Demonstrated adaptability and flexibility, as well as willingness to adjust to job duties as changes in technology and user needs dictate. Excellent oral and written communication skills. Demonstrated project management experience, excellent time management skills and demonstrated ability to meet multiple deadlines in an evolving environment. Demonstrated ability to work effectively and collaboratively with nonprofits, public archives, and community members.
Preferred
Relevant experience in grant administration. Comfort with new digital and social media tools. Strong commitment to public service, particularly to working with underrepresented communities. Experience in the acquisition of manuscript, archival, or other special collections, including working with community donors. Comfort with new digital and social media tools for historical resources.
Professional experience in public history/community outreach.
Experience in library, scholarly, or community programming, particularly in collaborative teams for events and visiting groups. Demonstrated experience with technologies used to describe, discover, provide access to, and promote the use of historical resources.
The Context and Setting
Eatonville, P.E.C., and the Orange County Regional History Center
Eatonville is one of the first American towns incorporated by newly emancipated Black people (1887). Tuskegee Institute’s principal, Dr. Booker T. Washington, identified Eatonville as one of America’s “model Negro towns.” Eatonville’s most notable resident was Zora Neale Hurston. The writer’s father served as Eatonville’s third mayor, and for many decades, The Robert Hungerford Normal and Industrial School was a center of Black learning in Eatonville, the state of Florida, and the United States. Hungerford closely followed the industrial education and civic practices of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute. The school came to be known as one of the “children of Tuskegee.”
The town has a long history of self-definition, surviving both de jure and de facto segregation, and fostering black land ownership during a time when it was legally forbidden. Crucially in more recent decades it successfully resisted the five-laning of the town’s two-lane main street as well as an adult entertainment encroachment, efforts led by the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc. (P.E.C.), a 501 c 3 historic preservation, cultural arts and community revitalization organization.
Established in 1987, PEC’s mission is to promote Eatonville, Florida’s considerable heritage, historical, and cultural resources as a means of the community’s revitalization and economic development; and via programming that promotes pride of heritage, educational excellence and the cultural arts to preserve the community for posterity.
The Orange County Regional History Center (OCRHC), housed in a restored historic 1927 courthouse in downtown Orlando, displays the collections of the Historical Society of Central Florida, and includes three floors of permanent exhibits traversing 12,000 years of Florida history. The museum, a Smithsonian Institution affiliate and AAM-accredited museum, also presents nationally important limited-run exhibitions.
The Setting
Eatonville is located just minutes from downtown Orlando, and the attractions and amenities of central Florida. It has recently been listed as one of America’s 11 Most Endangered Places by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Work is to be performed onsite.
How to Apply
To Apply
Please fill out the form that follows, uploading the required materials. submit a letter of application, a resume, and the name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number of three professional references, one of which must be your current or most recent supervisor.
Deadline for Applications
Review of applications will begin on December 1, 2024. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled, but preference will be given to applications by the date the review begins.
