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Preserving Community Voices

an Oral History Symposium

Join experts and community members for a full-day training on conducting oral history projects. This training is for organizations and individuals in an effort to support our communities and partners in capturing their own histories and in telling their own stories. Space is limited.

The Preserving Community Voices, an Oral History Symposium is a day of learning the ins and outs of conducting oral history projects. Join us as experts and community members share knowledge related to their experiences collecting oral histories. The event takes place on Saturday, August 10, 2024, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. in the Indianapolis Special Collections Room on the 6th floor of Central Library in downtown Indianapolis. Admission is free but registration is required, and seats are limited. This is a full day event. Lunch and parking passes will be provided.

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, 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. Fortunately, as new technologies have emerged 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 hearing about events from multiple perspectives, nuances that are often lost in written narratives can 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 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. We 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, and knowledge sharing).

The goal of the Oral History Symposium is to increase participants abilities to document and preserve their histories living in memory for the future through oral history projects. In an effort to support our communities and partners in capturing their own histories and in telling their own stories, this training is open to all organizations and individuals. The Preserving Community Voices, an Oral History Symposium, has been made possible with an Action Grant from Indiana Humanities through the National Endowment for the Humanities. Email questions to Digital Indy.

Date: Saturday, August 10, 2024

Location: Central Library, Indianapolis Special Collections Room

Time: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

**Admission is free but registration is required, and seats are limited. This is a full day event. Lunch and parking passes will be provided.

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