If you are a subscriber to the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center blog or are working on a history organization project related to Black Lives Matter,  please come to this meeting.  And if you would like to talk with me about it beforehand, please email: jmonachina@berkshirecc.edu I will be helping to lead the discussion, and… Read more

If you are building an oral history collection and would like people to know about it, let us help you get the word out.  We are creating a page on this site to link to oral history projects from the region.   We can also talk with you about archives and safe storage for your… Read more

Oral History Center to hire someone for short-term oral history inventory project The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center, working with four local history organizations – Sharon, Kent, and Salisbury, Connecticut, and Sheffield, Massachusetts – will hire someone to conduct oral history inventories in the history organizations of the four towns.  The goal of the project… Read more

Archiving Partner, University of Massachusetts Amherst Since the opening of the Oral History Center the the University of Massachusetts Libraries Special Collections has worked with us to make our oral history practice truly sustainable. They have done so by working with us to take the oral history collections of our region, who work through the… Read more

On Friday, June 5, from 1:00-2:30 PM, join Ken Turino (manager of Community Partnerships and Resource Development at Historic New England), Pleun Bouricius (curator of the Plainfield Historical Society and President of the Mass. History Alliance), and moderator Margo Shea (Assistant Professor of History at Salem State University) for a discussion on the reopening process…. Read more

In memory of Rob Cox, Head of the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) at the University of Massachusetts Library Rob Cox died earlier this week.  We are very sad to lose such a friend and ally. Rob was an important person in the development of our Center.  He helped our then new Oral History… Read more

  Our current pandemic and Global Pause mean that all of us are living in unprecedented times. Youth Librarian Jenney Maloy would like to invite children ages 4 to 18 to share their daily experiences and thoughts to help create a historical record of this moment. Future generations will be able to visit the Procter… Read more

Essential workers Oral History Project The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College will interview people who are doing work that is deemed essential and indeed is essential.  Nurses, postal workers, grocery clerks, physicians, pharmacy clerks and pharmacists, EMTs, and others.  As many parts of our society and economy are shut down due… Read more

You may be working remotely, on furlough, not working, or just feeling insecure.  This may be a time for listening to some stories of resilience.  Most life stories, it turns out, have some of that in them. Some have lots.   Below, you will find some links to stories. And remember, soon we will be doing… Read more

Our podcasting workshop series on April 7, 14, and 21, 1-3, at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, will be held online, via Zoom.  The workshop is free of charge, and sponsored by the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, which is a collaborative project of Housatonic Heritage and Berkshire Community College. This… Read more

  We will host another podcasting workshop series April 7, 14, and 21, 1-3, at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield.  The workshop is free of charge, and sponsored by the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, which is a collaborative project of Housatonic Heritage and Berkshire Community College. This time, Reinout van… Read more

In February, 2019, the NAACP Oral History Project exhibit opened at the Berkshire Museum.  It closed in May.  But now, thanks to two University of Massachusetts students, studying with Professor of History Sam Redman, Helen Kyriakoudes and Rachel Panasci Lima, that exhibit is online.  You can see the link to Their Stories here .  Thank… Read more

  We all have stories in our archives.  We know it is best to bring the stories out, for people to hear and see them.  But how?  One idea:   Involve the narrator, maybe she or he will have an idea.  That was the case in a recent event in New York Last weekend, I attended… Read more

Choosing Equipment for Oral History Projects The second webinar in the “Effective Oral History” series will be held this Thursday at 3 p.m. They will discuss factors to consider when deciding whether to use audio or video equipment when recording oral history interviews. Budget, staff, storage capacity, and project goals all affect equipment choices. Sponsored… Read more

The NAACP Oral History Project Exhibit, a collaboration of the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, the NAACP – Berkshire Branch, and the Berkshire Museum, opened on Feb. 1, 2019 and closed on May 5. Now, thanks to Sam Redman, professor of oral history at the University of Massachusetts, two graduate students… Read more

As you know, we are working with the University of Massachusetts Libraries Special Collections to archive and make available the oral history project interviews that we do in our region.  The   Monterey Library was one of the first organizations the Oral History Center worked with, helping Wendy Germain, project coordinator, by sponsoring an intern… Read more

  Next July (2020), Ann Gallo of UBU Theater (https://ubutheater.org/about),  based in Tyringham, Mass., will direct Women of Tyringham, a play based on 32 oral history interviews that she conducted.  Ann lives in Tyringham, and has directed community based theater in her town. But this is her first play based on oral history, and so… Read more

  When we archive our oral history interviews and related materials we are doing one of the most important things we do. We have been working with the University of Massachusetts Special Collections, and they are putting our interviews in their archive, which is available online.   We know they will be cared for, updated, and… Read more

Amy Starecheski sent examples of various media her graduating students at Columbia University’s Oral History MA program used to tell stories.  Click INTERVIEWS for the entire post. Click links for the individual projects. INTER\VIEWS was an inter\active multimedia pop-up oral history exhibit showcasing inter\disciplinary work created by students in the Columbia University Oral History Master… Read more

Is there a collection management system, or software, best suited for organizing oral history collection information?  We are working on a pilot in which we will help a few partner organizations do inventories of their oral history collections.  But first, a bit of research to find the best way to organize the information they collect…. Read more

  Use those audio interviews: make focused, compelling stories. In a two-part workshop LEARN TO MAKE A PODCAST Instructor:  Experienced radio journalist and podcaster,  Reinout Van Wagtendonk Where:  BCC Main Campus, room TBA When:  Two-part workshop, June 6 and 13, 10:30-12oo. (Part two will be hands on. You will bring your audio recording.) (Register soon;… Read more

Oral History Center offers Podcasting workshop   PITTSFIELD, MA – A two-part podcasting workshop will be offered by the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, in Pittsfield, during 90-minute morning sessions on June 6 and 13.  Reinout Van Wagtenduk, formerly U.S. correspondent for BNR Nieuwsradio and other Dutch radio outlets, and locally, creator… Read more

This community based theater director in Tyringham plans a 2020 production Have you ever encountered that feeling of relief when you accidentally stumble upon your Tribe? When you find yourself in a group of people with the same mindset, secret language and no need to explain what it is you are doing? Magically it happened… Read more

  The NAACP Oral History Project Exhibit, a collaboration of the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, the NAACP – Berkshire Branch, and the Berkshire Museum, opened on Feb. 1, 2019 and closed on May 5. But, you can still LISTEN to the project’s narrators, including NAACP President Dennis Powell.  

The Monterey Library has been working with the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College to move recorded oral history interviews to the University of Massachusetts Libraries Special Collections online archives. First, with a Housatonic Heritage technical assistance grant, the Library hired an intern, who transcribed the interviews, filled out metadata forms for… Read more

Alisa Del Tufo provided us with the following notes from her presentation Oral History and Social Justice.  For those who were present, these notes will be helpful reminders about the tools and project ideas.  See this link below: Berkshire Community College – PowerPoint Presentation Oral History and Social Justice, BCC Main Campus, Tuesday, Nov. 13,… Read more

If you receive this  post in your email, you are considered a part of our Oral History Alliance, that is people who want to be part of the growing oral history practice in our area. Today, we invite you to two November 2018 workshops.  Note:  One is in Pittsfield and the other is in Gt…. Read more

The UMass Oral History Lab and the UMass Public History Department offered a one-day (four hour) crash course this Friday, Oct. 5, 10-2, at the BCC Main Campus, free of charge. Participants learned about interviewing techniques, project planning, archiving, oral history ethics, recording technologies, and more. A public history professor at UMass, Sam Redman is the organizer of… Read more

Oral History workshops this fall at Berkshire Community College For Immediate Release Contact: Judith Monachina, Director Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College 413-236-1025 jmonachina@berkshirecc.edu www.theoralhistorycenter.org       PITTSFIELD, MA – Five oral history workshops will be offered at BCC this academic year, three of them this fall.   A Crash Course in… Read more