Those of you who participated in the 2017 Oral History Symposium at BCC South County Center will remember Annie Valk’s talk on a project she and an artist coordinated with students at Brown. Here, in this interview, the two women talk about the collaboration.  I hope you find it inspiring. (Click on The Mashapaug Project… Read more

Amy Starecheski was recently named Director of the Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA) program at Columbia University, where she has been working as Associate Director. I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce Oral History Center subscribers to Amy via an interview that appears on the Groundswell,  Oral History for Social Change blog. … Read more

Please join us for an informal discussion on: The Zen of Oral History Workflow Planning & steady steps toward your project’s success and completion   Brown bag lunch discussion at Sharon Historical Society, 18 Main Street, Sharon, CT  (Near the Sharon Hotchkiss Library). June 14, 2018, Noon.   Please call or email to confirm your… Read more

  CTSB-TV in Lee, Mass., has offered to host special camera skills and video editing training for  oral history practitioners in the region.  While community members who join CTSB can take the workshop without charge, this offer  would allow up to seven people associated with the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center, to take classes under… Read more

On Wednesday, March 28, 2018, Paul O’Brien, former director of Technology at the Southern Berkshire Regional School District and coordinator of oral history projects with youth and veterans, taught us how to use various pieces of equipment and gave us a chance to try them out. Participants had a chance to play with a video… Read more

Margaret Cherin, Bard College at Simon’s Rock Archivist, shows her project If you are thinking of starting an oral history project, the first question you should ask yourself is,  “What is my goal?” That question, according to Margaret Cherin, Archivist at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and director of the Simon’s Rock Oral History Project,… Read more

WORKSHOP 2:  Technology & the Oral History Interview Wednesday, March 28 1:00 – 3:00 PM Berkshire Community College, South County Center, 343 Main Street, Gt. Barrington, MA Instructor: Paul O’Brien Course Fee $20 (scholarships available) Register HERE! Some people use audio and others use video to record their oral history projects. What should you consider… Read more

Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College Join us for two spring workshops – 2018: ________________________________________________________ WORKSHOP 1: Setting Up Your Oral History Project Work  Wednesday, March 21 1:00 – 2:30 PM Berkshire Community College, South County Center, 343 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA Instructor: Margaret Cherin Course Fee $20 Register HERE! This… Read more

Harry Park is Public Programs Specialist at the Berkshire Museum.  He came to our May Symposium and at the end, when we were going around the room and telling each other what we hoped the Oral History Alliance would do, Harry offered to work with those of us who would like to collaborate with the… Read more

The Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at BCC is working with Housatonic Valley Regional High School faculty member Peter Vermilyea and his students, one of whom is creating a radio show that will utilize clips from an oral history festival held at the school in May, 2017.   Before getting started, we wanted to see what… Read more

Rob Cox, Head of Special Collections, University of Massachusetts Libraries, is helping us to get our files ready for his online archive.  In May, Rob came to the Symposium to talk about planning our projects and preparing them for the public archive. On this page, you will see the UMass 125th anniversary oral history project… Read more

Congratulations Abigail Adam, HVRHS intern and graduate In Academic year 2017-18, HVRHS senior Abigail Adam created this podcast using  11 oral history interviews conducted by her fellow students.  The interviewees, or narrators, were alumni/ae of HVRHS, who talked about coming of age in NW Connecticut in the 1950’s.  Those interviews were done as part of… Read more

Using OTranscribe for your transcriptions Joe Makuc, pictured above, was a Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at BCC intern, working for the Monterey Library Oral History Project.  He wrote this piece. Hi, welcome to this oTranscribe user’s guide. This guide explains how to use the free browser extension oTranscribe to create transcripts of audio and… Read more

Two  students in a Spring Semester Sociology class with Professor Colin Adams wanted their final project to be an oral history interview.   We met and decided that a nursing alumna would be the ideal candidate for this oral history.  First, it would be useful because the interview would become part of the BCC Oral History… Read more

Rachel Levin and Chanel Palmer, Williams College interns at the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at BCC this summer, interviewed Margaret Cherin, Archivist at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.   But first, below, Chanel and Rachel met with Mark Mills, journalist, in the Koussevitzky Arts Center at BCC, to learn about audio interviews. Here is a… Read more

(Maggie Adams, former President, NAACP Berkshire Chapter) The Oral History Center at Berkshire community college is working with the NAACP to set up their oral history project.  Many decisions are being made.  Do they want audio or video?  Who are the stewards inside the organization?  Whom do they want to interview and what is the… Read more

Also, the Monterey Library, is well on their way, with 30 plus interviews already done!  Intern Joe Makuc is seen here transcribing an interview.  Joe discovered that O Transcribe helped him to speed up the transcription process.  Joe, working with Wendy Germain of Monterey, who heads the project, is seen here working at Community Television… Read more