TITLE: Public Humanities Fellow, Madison Stories Organization Description Madison Children’s Museum (MCM) is a nationally recognized and award winning interactive museum whose mission, is to connect children with their families, their communities, and the world beyond through discovery learning and creative play. MCM is an educational leader, community partner, and source of inspiration for families with children ages 0–12, and serves a vibrant and diverse community, primarily from Dane County, blending both urban and rural backgrounds. The museum serves over 225,000 people of all ages each year through its onsite and outreach offerings. A national leader in sustainable exhibit and program design, MCM undertakes its work with a decidedly local approach, working with local people, products and resources, and content that highlights the many unique features of Madison, Dane County and Wisconsin in all of its work. This sustainability ethic is core to the museum’s principles, and has distinguished our innovative practices for decades. Madison Public Library’s tradition of promoting education, literacy and community involvement has enriched the City of Madison for more than 135 years. The library’s nine locations throughout the City of Madison are open six days a week (with limited Sunday hours) and welcome over 2.35 million visits each year. Madison Public Library (MPL) is part of the South Central Library System, a cooperative network of 52 public libraries in a seven county area. The System offers a shared online catalog, daily delivery of books and media, and reciprocal borrowing privileges among libraries. In 2011, Madison Public Library welcomed 2.25 million visitors from Madison, Dane County, and beyond, circulated nearly 4.4 million library books and media from nine different library locations throughout Madison, facilitated over 721,400 in-library internet uses, and welcomed almost 90,000 children and adults to library classes and events. Among Wisconsin’s 10 biggest library service areas as defined by the state, Madison topped the rankings of circulation per capita, accumulating more than 4.7 million checkouts in 2010, or 17.82 per resident, according to data from the 2010 fiscal year compiled by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Position Description The Madison Children’s Museum and Madison Public Library seek an enthusiastic professional with excellent research skills, experience working with children, teens and families, and strong understanding of and familiarization with digital media and online publishing platforms to guide their collaborative Madison Stories project. The Fellow will be responsible for researching and recommending online publishing platforms, guiding both organizations in selection and retention guidelines, researching permissions and copyright issues, and planning and implementing the Madison Stories project, for which both organizations have jointly applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities Museums, Libraries and Cultural Organizations Planning Grant. If awarded, the Fellow would work with both organizations and oversee aspects of this grant from August 2014-May 2015 on behalf of both organizations. Madison Stories is a humanities and community-based storytelling project designed to engage local youth in collecting and disseminating important local stories about culture, place and history from within our own community. These stories will frame important humanities questions about how local cultures are sustained, how individuals and communities maintain their customs, and the role that place has in maintaining cultures. A secondary but equally important outcome of Madison Stories is using this celebration of local culture to address one of Madison’s significant challenges, a significant racial achievement gap within our local K-12 public schools. Madison Stories will expressly focus on the ways that storytelling about local place and customs can help build community and pride, while helping participants develop essential literacy skills. Both organizations hosted individual Public Humanities Fellows during the 2013-2014 academic year, and this project is an outgrowth of those efforts. Qualifications Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills A passion for public humanities, museums and libraries Excellent organizational and process management skills Excellent written and verbal communication skills Excellent computer skills and high comfort level with digital media, including digital databases Excellent written and verbal communication skills The ability to work both independently and on a team Positive attitude Range of humanities research and evaluation methodologies Please do not contact this organization with questions about the position. Send an email to the Center for the Humanities at info@humanities.wisc.edu with ‘Public Humanities Fellowship Inquiry’ in the subject line, or give us a call at 608.263.3412. Thanks! o o o o o 2014-15 Public Humanities Fellowship Program Applications due: February 28, 2014