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