Howard City Library - Discussion Regarding Local Oral Histories

[MarkHall]

Hey Everyone,

We had a discussion at the library board meeting this evening, and Don Seaton discussed ways the library could help preserve local oral histories.

For example, volunteers could bring in (or go visit) with some of our treasured senior citizens and "interview" them regarding local history and/or their life.

These could then be recorded using a digital camcorder, stored digitally, cataloged, and archived at the Howard Library.

This could be a casual "one-time" undertaking, or it could become a ongoing project. This is beyond the scope of just one person, and would take a lot of time and effort from a lot of people in the community.

Again - this is something that we're just discussing at this point. Our first task is to see if there's any interest in the community to do something like this.

If anyone has any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions, please let me know, or discuss your ideas with one of your local library board members:

Mark Hall
Lois Markley
Liz Bantz
Susan Galvan
Don Seaton

[sixdogsmom]

When I lived in Wichita, I often listened to the local NPR radio station. On holidays and such they would play selections from the oral history the university collected as a bicentennial project. They are fascinating and I encourage this project even though I do not live in Howard.

[Buddyboy]

I wholeheartedly encourage this and not only interviewing the ones that you would think of, but others too. I see here in Parsons, people from the different communities/groups/races whatever you wish to call them with an abundance of history and different views of the town's history fading away. Don't be afraid to interview the ones that you think might not shed the best light on the town. It will make your oral history more accurate to have many viewpoints. That way people can shake a little salt on the whole thing and come out with a true picture.