Coffs Harbour City Library is celebrating 50 years of service. In preparation for the 50th anniversary celebrations, the library has launched a new website called '50 Years 50 Stories' to promote the library's history and its impact on the community. The site includes narratives on the development of the library service, including photographs, online oral history interviews and streaming video.
Author: ohadmin
Museum of Printing, Armidale
The initiative is called the Oral History Project and includes recorded interviews with almost 100 former printers. Museum curator Benjamin Thorn said the museum is not just a repository for old printing equipment. For full story, click here.
Kids Connect to Immigrant Roots
A group of Oakland public school third graders were given an assignment: interview your parents and grandparents, and record their stories about growing up in the U.S. or moving to this country. The local nonprofit running the project, ALICE Arts, found itself with over 400 oral histories — immigrant stories from Cambodia to Africa's Gold Coast and beyond. For full story, radio program and video click here.
Human Face of Global Economy
A review of: Invisible Hands: Voices From the Global Economy
Compiled and edited by Corinne Goria
Voice of Witness, McSweeny's Books, 2014
This new and completely engrossing book of oral history testimonials by workers in factories and fields all over the world is a welcome addition to the Voice of Witness series. Oral history is always about contributing to the historical record, creating historical narratives, from the ground up and the people at McSweeny's Voice of Witness project make it their mission to give voice to the marginalized and silenced people of the world. This in itself is a powerful human rights accomplishment. For full story click here.
StoryCorps – Gay America
David Isay, the founder of the nonprofit oral history group StoryCorps, tried for many years with little success to raise money for a project to collect stories from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community. When his father died two years ago on the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots, he decided the project would proceed, with money or not. For full story, click here.
PNG Kokoda Track Stories
Researchers from PNG and Australia's Deakin University are drawing on the expertise of historians and locals to gather first-hand accounts of Papua New Guineans wartime experience along the Kokoda Track. For full story including ABC radio interview, click here.
Irish-American Immigrants Project
Jerry Reid, professor of anthropology and sociology and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Sacred Heart University, recently began an oral history project with students on the lives of Irish American immigrants. For full story click here.
Alistair Thomson in Brisbane
We are very pleased to have renowned oral historian Alistair Thomson coming to Brisbane on 5 June to give a presentation at the State Library of Queensland. For full details click here.
Mary River Oral History
A co-operative effort between the Mary River Catchment Co-ordinating Committee and Luke Barrowcliff's Goorie Vision under the Caring for Country banner has collated a vast array of information on the history of the Mary River catchment. Dr Tanzi Smith and Mr Barrowcliffe co-ordinated the project which involved travelling to different locations throughout the catchment and filming, listening and interviewing residents of that area. For full story click here.
Greenwich Village Oral History Project
Storytellers and interviewers in an ambitious oral history project came together last month at Jefferson Market Library to celebrate their effort to preserve the past. For five months, volunteers worked to record neighborhood tales from people who have lived, worked or spent more than 20 years in the area for “Your Village, Your Story: A Greenwich Village Oral History Project.” Successfully archived, the stories are now accessible online. For full story click here and to listen to the interviews click here.