Preserving Community Voices, an Oral History Symposium

Event Details

Join experts and community members for the Preserving Community Voices symposium, a full-day training on conducting oral history projects that focuses on supporting communities and partners in capturing their own histories and in telling their own stories.

The Preserving Community Voices symposium is a day for learning the ins and outs of conducting oral history projects. Oral tradition has always been a part of history keeping as a way to pass knowledge from generation to generation. Because living memory is more fragile than any artifact or paper document, however, historians have relied almost exclusively on the written word in traditional archives to make sense of our history. Unfortunately, many of these institutions are limited in the range of voices that they represent. As new technologies have emerged, though, oral tradition can now be captured and preserved long-term, allowing oral history projects to bring additional voices into the historical narrative.

These recorded first-person accounts of history connect listeners to events in ways that paper records can’t. By sharing events from multiple perspectives, they allow nuances that are often lost in written narratives to be recovered. Especially for underrepresented communities, oral histories are often the best way to preserve history that has been overlooked or ignored. However, oral histories are more complex to create than they seem, which is why Digital Indy, the Indianapolis Public Library’s digital archive, is offering a full-day free training on conducting oral history projects.

The symposium will be a day of high-quality learning with several sessions covering topics that will equip attendees with a well-rounded understanding of the nature of, as well as information essential to, the process of planning and executing successful oral history projects. Organizers are excited to welcome the symposium keynote speaker Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky, a recognized world leader and innovator in the collection and preservation of oral histories. Topics covered during the symposium also include: technology (equipment, formats, software, preservation), copyright (ownership, permissions, legal use), project planning and implementation (defining scope, logistics, general preparation, questions) and lessons learned (panel discussing tips, tricks, knowledge sharing).

This training is open to all organizations and individuals, but space is limited, and registration is required. To reserve your spot, click on the RSVP button above to go to the symposium’s event page, then click on the Register button in the left column. Lunch and parking passes will be provided.

For more information, email Digital Indy.

This program received support from an Indiana Humanities Action Grant.