Oral History @ Your Library: A Beginner's Guide
Interested in fitting oral history into your library’s repertoire, but don’t know where to start? Join us for this one-hour introduction.
This webinar will provide an introduction to the ways in which libraries can use oral history for everything from collection development and programming to community engagement.
We will begin with the basics — what is oral history? What does it contribute? — and also offer programming ideas for all ages, information about related technology (what type of equipment to use in which circumstances), and a wide range of resources for those who would like to follow up on the topic. At the end of the webinar, participants should have a better idea of how they might be able to utilize oral history in their libraries, and they will have a basic sense of what steps they would need to take to implement that vision.
Mary A. Larson is the associate dean for special collections at the Oklahoma State University Library, where she joined the faculty in July 2009 as director of the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program. She has been conducting oral histories for 25 years, having previously worked with the programs at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and the University of Nevada, Reno. Larson is a past president of the Oral History Association (US) and has also served on that organization’s council as well as on the board of the Southwest Oral History Association and the editorial board of the H-Oralhist listserv. Larson holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and an MA and PhD in anthropology from Brown University.
Jeff D. Corrigan has been the oral historian for the State Historical Society of Missouri at the University of Missouri since 2008. He oversees all aspects of the oral history program, from interviewing to final processing, and conducts numerous public outreach programs and workshops each year. He has served on two OHA program committees, served as the workshop chair, and is currently serving on the Publications and Nominating Committee. He hold a BS in agricultural and environmental communications and educations from the University of Illinois, an MA in US and world history from Eastern Illinois University, and is currently working on his MLIS degree at the University of Missouri.
