The HistoryMakers

Video Oral History Copyeditor

The HistoryMakers seeks to hire a full-time Video Oral History Copyeditor/Publisher to supervise a team of 10 video oral history writers/processors who must 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. The goal is to make this unique collection accessible to a worldwide audience via The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. The person hired must have proven experience as a copyeditor, be adept at using the Chicago Manual of Style, and be able to manage a large scale publishing project, adhering to daily, weekly and monthly deadlines. The publishing team hired must process and add 40-45 interviews/month to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive (each interview averages 4-6 hours in length). The Copyeditor must have a background in African American, American, women and gender studies  as well as prior experience as a proofreader/editor. He/she must be able to adhere to The HistoryMakers guide book while accurately describing the content of the interview in a concise and accurate manner. The interviews cover 20^th century history interviews across a wide variety of occupations, geographic areas and fields (i.e. STEM, law, art, education, music, etc.). The

The Video Oral History Copyeditor/Publisher will be responsible for:

• Assigning daily, weekly and monthly quotas and ensuring that the publishing team meet the quotas in adherence to The HistoryMakers Segmenting and Publishing Guidelines;
• Audit/editing segmented transcripts as well as the narrative transcripts for each interview and ensuring accuracy and attention to detail with attention to style and grammar.
• Communicating effectively with the publishing team
• 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 $70,000 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 21^st century citizenry that has become increasingly less tolerant, divisive and economically and educationally disparate.