Oral History in a Digital Age

New technologies offer great potential for advancing the practice of oral history. However, they also introduce new questions and issues. Michigan State University, through the MATRIX Center and the Michigan State University Museum, will partner with the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center, the American Folklore Society, and the Oral History Association to recommend standards and best practices for digital oral history. Several multidisciplinary working groups recruited from experts and practitioners from museums, libraries, and scholarly societies will work online, at meetings such as national conferences, and in a symposium at the Library of Congress to produce recommendations around core topics including collecting, curating, and disseminating oral histories, as well as with topics pertaining to ntellectual property, digital video, and technology. Final recommendations from all groups will be published as a guide to conducting digital oral history.  Oral History projects come in all shapes and sizes and trying to establish a comprehensive, best practices for all kinds of projects introduces many challenges.  My goal at ThatCamp is to discuss with those interested in oral history from a variety of backgrounds representing a variety of institutions, their needs, their challenges and their visions for how this project could help them.