West Virginia Mine Wars Museum Archives Capacity Building VISTA Summer Associate-AmeriCorps

 

 

Position Title:  Archives + Collections Capacity Summer Associate – VISTA Summer Associate

Conservation Legacy Program: Stewards Individual Placement

 

Site Location: 

West Virginia Mine Wars Museum

112 Mate Street, Matewan, WV 25678

 

Terms of Service:


* Start Date: 6/1/2026


* End Date: 8/9/2026


* AmeriCorps Slot Classification: 300 hours (Minimum-Time)

 

Purpose:


* Coal's legacy shaped long-term economic disruption and persistent poverty across southern West Virginia.

Strengthening archives access supports education and civic participation by making local history more available to schools and community members.

It also supports heritage tourism and research interest in the region by improving the Museum's ability to share credible, well-organized historical materials.


* The project leaves behind standardized tools and documented workflows that staff and volunteers can use to process new donations, keep digital files organized, and respond to education/research requests more efficiently—without needing specialized archival training.

 
Description of Duties:

The Summer Associate will focus on capacity-building activities that produce internal planning resources, documentation tools, and community engagement materials.

Duties may include compiling labor market research summaries, developing workforce resource inventories, creating community asset maps, organizing environmental data sets, drafting partnership coordination frameworks, designing planning templates and resource guides, and assisting with public-facing informational workshops, outreach campaigns, or site observations.

Activities are designed to strengthen host organizations’ capacity, guide long-term workforce and environmental program development, provide tangible connections between planning tools and community needs, and support measurable outcomes in workforce access, environmental stewardship, and community engagement.

 

The Summer Associate will build the Museum's archiving and digitization capacity by helping staff implement a consistent workflow for archival intake, basic arrangement/description, and digitization tracking.

Duties include organizing and inventorying materials, establishing standardized file naming and folder structure, creating simple metadata guidelines, maintaining a digitization/processing log, and drafting clear checklists/templates staff and volunteers can reuse.

The role may include limited reference support (pulling items for staff requests), but is primarily focused on creating sustainable systems and documentation.

 
Qualifications:


* Car recommended;


* Desired education level: Some College


* Language requirement: English


* United States citizen, United States national, or a lawful permanent resident alien


* At least 17 years of age


* Has received a high school diploma or equivalency certificate; or has not dropped out of elementary or secondary school to enrol...