[Libs-Or] New online oral history resource

[Lopez, Cynthia J.]

Greetings all,

I would like to share an LSTA-funded oral history project currently in progress through Pacific University Archives.

THE EXTREMELY SHORT VERSION:
We have digitized over 600 (of 900) endangered oral histories from cultural organizations in Washington County, Oregon and made them available to the public via the Pacific University Archives digital exhibits site: http://exhibits.lib.pacificu.edu/exhibits/show/oral-histories. Topics include High Tech, Forestry, Farming, Education, Migrant Labor and the histories of veterans, immigrants, Latino- and Japanese-Americans, and many others. Please feel free to peruse and share this resource!

THE LONGER VERSION:
We are currently engaged in digitizing, preserving, and creating a centralized online public access site for approximately 900 oral histories held by thirteen cultural institutions located in Washington County, Oregon. This project is taking place just in time, as many of the oral history recordings were endangered due to aging formats and deteriorating media and were not available for public use.

The oral history collections from six of the thirteen participating organizations are currently available to stream on the Pacific University Archives digital exhibit site at http://exhibits.lib.pacificu.edu/exhibits/show/oral-histories, including audio, video, and transcript collections from Pacific University Archives, the Washington County Museum, Sherwood Historical Society, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, Friends of Historic Forest Grove, and Cedar Mill Community Library. Topics include High Tech, Forestry, Farming, Education, Migrant Labor and the histories of veterans, immigrants, Latino- and Japanese-Americans, and many others.

Additional collections from the Tualatin, Tigard, Cedar Mill, Beaverton, and 8th Oregon Air Force historical societies and the Tigard and Forest Grove libraries will be added over the next two months.

The work on this project is more than halfway completed. Most of the oral histories have been digitized and processed and preservation is ongoing, with preservation copies stored on Amazon Glacier, optical disks, and external hard drives.

In addition to the actual digitization, preservation, and public access efforts, this project also seeks to demonstrate how a large audio-visual collection in analog format can be digitized and preserved at a reasonable cost and in a sustainable manner.

This project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Oregon State Library.

Cynthia Lopez
Oral History Project Archivist
Pacific University
lopezc at pacificu.edu<mailto:lopezc at pacificu.edu>
503-352-1415 office
971-227-5040 mobile

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