Internships Available Now at Open Books!

Attention bookworms of greater Chicago! Are you looking for a fast-paced intern position in a colorful River North startup featuring creative marketing, program building, and all the books you can read? If so, you will be delighted to hear that Open Books is looking for 2 fantastic interns to help write the next chapter in the story of the city’s first nonprofit literacy bookstore. Slated to open in 2009, Open Books will be a two-storied dream: a funky, fun, comfortable 50,000-volume bookstore whose proceeds go to fund a spectrum of literacy classes upstairs. While we wait for our building to be finished, we work with programs across Chicago to make reading a fun and fundamental experience for readers at all levels.

Intern The First will be our secret weapon in the field of literacy programming. In this esteemed position you will be the resident czar of coordinating volunteers for our outreach projects, which include everything from starting a mobile bookstore in conjunction with the famous StoryBus (37’ of pure interactive entertainment!) and running a reading buddy program for kids at Schiller Elementary School through working with our friends at the Neighborhood Writing Alliance to help adults in Chicago’s low-income neighborhoods write and perform works about their lives and assisting as tutors in homeless shelters through Chicago HOPES. You’ll also get to represent Open Books at events, put together field trips to our office and warehouse for teachers and students, help us brainstorm new outreach opportunities and literacy programs and spread the word about them, and generally using your energy, creativity, organizational skills to bring the joy of books and reading to groups all over the city.

Intern the Second will be our crown jewel of marketing and PR. In this exalted role you will be the dynamic vizier of our multitudinous efforts to spread the word about literacy across Chicago. As a small startup with big ideas, we’ve got a hundred great stories to tell about how much reading matters and what wonderful people across the city are doing with it. Projects in your dominion include helping to write press releases, coordinate media pitches, launch and oversee marketing campaigns, and plan events ranging from book drives and blogging through marathons, mobile bookstores, and more. If you’ve studied marketing/PR or have a strong interest in learning more about it, don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty (we’ve got 100,000 books to go through), are looking forward to taking the initiative to create and implement new ideas, and want to bring your energy, creativity, social, and organizational skills to use in getting the story of literacy told everywhere, look no further!

Open Books is run by an enterprising, energetic, and slightly eccentric team of readers and writers who can collectively make a quilt, throw a grenade, and rock the house. We’re flexible, energetic, and motivated, and overjoyed by the prospect of sharing our dream with the right people! To get started, please send us your resume and the most creative introduction you can think of -- something that shows us not only your skills, but your personality and passions as well. Questions? Let us know! We can’t wait to meet you.

By email: interns@open-books.org

By snailmail: Open Books
213 W. Institute Pl. Suite 305
Chicago, IL 60610