Categories
Developments

Oral History Task Force

In July 2012, the SRMA Board authorized a two-year Task Force to explore the formation of a regional oral-history association that would include Colorado and Wyoming. The Task Force mission is to confirm the interest in, need for, and feasibility of a regional oral-history association. SRMA is providing financial support for annual workshops, with the understanding that profits may be used as seed money to start the regional association.

For more information about the Task Force and its activities, contact co-chairs Kate Legg and Cyns Nelson: klegg@ucar.edu or cynsnelson@voicepreserve.org

Categories
Developments

Interest in Regional Oral History Association

Colorado and Wyoming are two states not currently affiliated with any regional oral-history association (e.g. Southwest OHA, Mid-Atlantic OHA, etc.). A working group comprised of folks from our shared “Square States” is exploring the enthusiasm for and feasibility of an alliance between Colorado and Wyoming. The group has begun identifying areas of opportunity and need that would be served by such an association; we’ve begun evaluating pros and cons of this two-state regional proposal. Stay tuned for more info.

Contact for working group is Nancy Freeman, National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins: nancy.a.freeman@aphis.usda.gov.

Categories
Developments

Oral History Survey and Needs Assessment

In March 2012, Voice Preserve partners conducted a survey to assess oral-history interest and activity in Colorado and Wyoming. Data from that survey are summarized in a simple Word document: Oral History Needs Assessment Survey Summary

Categories
Foundational Thinking

Your Response?

We need your support and your ideas. Please use the comment space to share impressions of the project.

Categories
Foundational Thinking

The Vision

Traditionally, institutions have viewed holdings—books, artifacts, images—as their primary assets. Colorado Voice Preserve, as an institution, eschews ownership claims. We hope to BE an asset to the community, by providing shelf space for voice. Our institutional value will derive from the ability to create thoughtful information (relying on humanities), apply meaningful organization (based on library science), provide maximum dissemination (through shared cataloging), and offer safe preservation.

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Foundational Thinking

The Collaboration

Colorado’s State Library is acting as lead agency in a collaborative effort to establish this new repository. Other partners include History Colorado and Colorado Humanities. Each organization represents different disciplines and communities—but, in oral history, the agencies have common interest. The collaboration allows partners to focus specific expertise toward a mutually beneficial outcome. That outcome includes shared infrastructure (technologies and systems); shared facilities, equipment, and staff; agreed-upon standards and practices; and programs and services that compliment diverse cultural activities.

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Foundational Thinking

The Need

Libraries, museums, cultural agencies, and community groups across Colorado are interested in oral history. Projects may be conceived in response to an event of historic significance; to capture perspectives that have been overlooked; to facilitate community conversation; or to tap a living knowledge that would otherwise be lost. While the desire and need may be keen, most groups (or libraries, or local museums) lack the capacity to carry out projects AND adhere to standards of description, organization, dissemination, and preservation. This is where Voice Preserve can be vital.

Categories
Foundational Thinking

The Idea

Colorado is starting an initiative to create a digital repository dedicated to the preservation of individual stories. The concept is simple: One person’s experience is equivalent to a book. A story is told. We can apply the principles of library science to the audio recording, to reveal its content and facilitate connections between that single story and a larger body of knowledge. To accomplish this, audio must be represented—or reiterated—through different modalities: transcript, abstract, key words, subject headings, etc. Additionally, item-level metadata must be articulated and affiliated with the original sound file.

These steps are time-consuming and labor intensive, but they allow access to the recording as well as the ideas contained within the audio. Metadata elements populate a cataloging record that can be shared among consortium libraries, and a Web-based platform presents and distributes interviews.