Job Opening Title:
Nine-Month Fellowship Program
Name of Employer:
California State Parks
Job Site Location (City, State) :
Sacramento, CA
Application Deadline:
May 22, 2023
Minimum Degree Requirement:
BA
Years of experience required:
Salary Range:
$24, 105 limited nine months
Job Opening URL:
https://bit.ly/3NKbB5T
Job Description (if URL to posting not available). Include instructions for how to apply.:
The California State Parks in the Capital (Sacramento) District seeks current graduate students, recent graduates, or early-career professionals in Archives, Libraries, and Museum Collections for a new fellowship program starting in July 2023. The Capital District encompasses numerous museums and historic sites: the California State Railroad Museum, the Governor’s Mansion, the Leland Stanford Mansion, the State Capitol Museum, the State Indian Museum, and Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park.
Each fellow will focus on a project related to the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives, the California State Railroad Museum collections, or the archives of the district’s historic sites and museums. More details about each fellowship position are below. Throughout, the fellows will attend information sessions with a range of State Parks staff to learn about career paths in the department. In addition, fellows will present their final projects at a district-wide symposium at the conclusion of the program.
The nine-month program begins July 5, 2023, and ends March 15, 2024. The total stipend is $24,105, which allows for 1,500 hours at the rate of $16.07 per hour, with no benefits. Work will be scheduled between Monday and Friday at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento and the Statewide Museum Collections Center in McClellan. There may be occasional off-site meetings throughout the Sacramento area.
Current graduate students, recent graduates, and early career professionals from art history, library sciences, archival studies, museum studies, and collections management programs are preferred. We are also excited about the opportunity to reach candidates who bring diverse perspectives to their work.
To apply, please submit this application https://jobs.ca.gov/pdf/STD678.pdf and a cover letter and resume or curriculum vitae to one of the following email addresses: for the Archives fellowship, please send materials to Dr. Emma Silverman at Emma.Silverman@parks.ca.gov, and for the Collections and Library fellowships, please send your materials to Melanie Tran at melanie.tran@parks.ca.gov.
Application review will begin on May 22, 2023.
Archives Fellow
The Capital District of California State Parks, which is enmeshed in the urban landscape of Sacramento, encompasses two historic houses, a historic fort, the State Capitol Museum, and the State Indian Museum/California Indian Heritage Center. Each of these park units has a rich set of archives with varied contents including documentation, ephemera, photographs, research files, and unit history. Throughout the nine-month fellowship, the Archives Fellow will survey the whereabouts and contents of the Capital District’s archival collections. This person will then author a finalized report for internal use by California State Parks about the current state of the district’s archives and recommendations for its future. If there is time, the Archives Fellow may also focus on one archival collection and generate a finding aid in accordance with the standards and practices outlined in Describing Archives: A Content Standard, 2nd Edition and Encoded Archival Description.
To complete this project, the candidate needs graduate-level knowledge of the archival process and familiarity with contemporary software, methods, and style used by practicing professional archivists. The ideal candidate is also curious, self‐directed, detail‐oriented, and able to work in a collaborative environment.
The Archives Fellow will be supervised by Dr. Emma Silverman, the District Cultural Resources Program Manager/Museum Curator III. For more information, please contact Dr. Silverman at Emma.Silverman@parks.ca.gov.
Collections Fellow
The California State Railroad Museum tells the stories of people through a collection of over one hundred full-size railroad equipment and thousands of railroad cultural artifacts. The Collections Fellow will contribute by researching and documenting artifact stories, using 360° photography to bring these stories to life, and assisting the preservation maintenance team in monitoring and cleaning locomotives and cars on exhibit.
Prior experience in object handling, basic preservation techniques, and databases is desired. The ideal candidate is self‐directed, detail‐oriented, and able to work in a collaborative environment. Knowledge of railroad culture and history is welcome but not required.
The Collections Fellow will be supervised by Melanie Tran, Chief Curator. For more information, please email melanie.tran@parks.ca.gov.
Library Fellow
The California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives is home to an extensive collection of books, periodicals, photographs, manuscripts, maps, drawings, and ephemera pertaining to more than 4,000 railroads and corporations throughout North America from 1820 to the present. The Library & Archives responds to an average of 1,500 requests a year from museum staff, volunteers, and community members including historians, genealogists, authors, modelers, and legal professionals.
Throughout the nine-month fellowship, the Library Fellow’s primary duty is to review the storage of the maps and technical drawings collection, update catalog records to accurately reflect current storage locations, and identify or locate misfiled items. The Library Fellow fills in as needed with general library operations including working with volunteers, handling reference requests, and processing reproduction orders.
Ideal skills include the ability to: assist with reference requests, provide excellent customer service, shelve and retrieve collections, catalog, process, and digitize collections. The ideal candidate is self‐directed, detail‐oriented, and able to work in a collaborative environment. Knowledge of railroad culture and history is welcome but not required.
The Library Fellow will be supervised by Melanie Tran, Chief Curator. For more information, please email melanie.tran@parks.ca.gov.
Archives Gig 