The Institute of Jazz Studies Archival Fellows Program was established in 2012 to support the professional devlopment of early career archivists as well as to promote diversity in the archival field.  Each year, three Fellows are selected from among dozens of applicants, who are either currently enrolled in, or recent graduates of, an MLIS program, have a special interest in jazz, music archives, and or African American culture, and aspire to careers as archivists.  Fellows receive a stipend to cover travel, hotel, and miscellaneous expenses. The Fellowship Program,was founded by former Dana Library Director Mark Winston and former IJS Associate Director Ed Berger (who continues as program coordinator), and is made possible through contributions from the Morroe Berger-Benny Carter Jazz Research Fund and longtime IJS supporter John Van Rens.

The Fellows spend two weeks on the campus of Rutgers-Newark working closely with IJS archivists, faculty and staff.  Participants gain hands-on experience processing one of the Institute’s multi-faceted collections and preparing a related digital project that can be shared with colleagues and prospective employers. The program also includes seminars with campus administrators and library faculty, who provide an overview of Rutgers-Newark as the nation’s most diverse campus, as well as role of an archive within an urban university library. The Program is supplemented with two days of visits to other area archives and institutions, which have included the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library Archival Processing Center, the Louis Armstrong House Museum and Archive, the Jazz Museum in Harlem, the Carnegie Hall Archive, and the New York Philharmonic Archive at Lincoln Center.  There are also several social gatherings with IJS staff and area librarians and archivists.

ARCHIVAL PROGRAM STAFF:
Archival Fellowship Program Coordinator
Ed Berger

Dana Library
Consuella Askew, Director

IJS Administration
Vincent Pelote, IJS Director of Operations
Adriana Cuervo, IJS Associate Director

Archivists
Elizabeth Surles, Archivist
Angela Lawrence, Processing Archivist
Tad Hershorn, Project Archivist

Digital Projects
Krista White, Digital Humanities Librarian
Bob Nahory, Digital Library Applications Developer