General Description

In 2020, the Chicago Public Library (CPL) established the new Archives & Special Collections Division to connect the work of the archival and exhibit units more fully to CPL’s overarching 2020-2024 strategic plan and to support more holistic work around processing, digitization, and activation. The Division includes the Vivian G. Harsh Collection at Woodson Regional Library, the Northside Neighborhood History Collection at Sulzer Regional Library, the Special Collections at Harold Washington Library Center, and a system-wide Exhibits Unit. The Division’s mission is to “collect, describe, catalog, preserve, and provide access to digital and physical collections and exhibitions in order to foster primary source literacy, community engagement, and support a more accurate reflection of Chicago history for generations to come.”

In 2023, the Chicago Public Library was awarded a four-year, $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to activate the rich African American history resources housed across the Archives & Special Collections Division. The Mellon grant will support processing and digitization, programming, scholarship, and tools for K-12 educators. The CPL Foundation is seeking to hire a program coordinator for a three-year term (2024-2027) to activate Black history collections through the creation of thoughtful and engaging public and scholarly programming. This role will manage both the public and scholarly tracks of the Mellon project.

For the public track, the program coordinator will work directly with CPL’s Cultural, Civic & Literary Programming Team to facilitate and support CPL branch level programming such as lectures, author talks, exhibits, and collections care events across the Library’s children’s, teens, and adult departments. For the scholarly track, the program coordinator will develop and facilitate the call for research grants, which will assist with the creation of new scholarship related to the collections. Lastly, this position will work with the project team and a curriculum advisory committee to host a curriculum convening for educators who wish to use the newly processed and digitized collections to support the Illinois TEAACH Act.  

Tasks and Duties

The core functions of the position will be:

• Collaborate with CPL staff to coordinate and facilitate, at a minimum, four public programming events per month across Chicago Public Library locations. Types of programming can include lectures, author talks, exhibits, and collections care events.
• Collaborate with and conduct outreach to internal and external community partners about Mellon programming at CPL.
• Coordinate the development of the RFP for the research grants in years 2 and 3 and assist the project team with reviewing and selecting applicants.
• Assist with planning and promotion of curriculum convening activities in year 4 of the grant.

Minimum Requirements

This individual will believe in culturally relevant practices and have competency in the following skill sets:

• Master's degree in education, African American Studies, Library & Information Science, or other relevant fields of study.
• 3-5 years’ experience developing programs in cultural heritage and/or scholarly environments and promoting these programs.
• Experience working on projects or collections related to African American history, Black Chicago history, and related topics.
• An understanding of inquiry-based and inclusive-research practices and how to apply them.
• Experience building and managing professional partnerships.
• Experience developing and facilitating online webinars, workshops, and other convenings.

Desired Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities.

• Designing flyers to promote events.
• Collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative program data.

Salary

• 75,000 per year

Hours

• 37.5 hours per week

Location

• Position will be based at Harold Washington Library Center and may work remote as needed. Coordinator will be expected to travel to CPL branches throughout the city.