Digitized Oral History News

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Nancy

Listening to NPR on the way home today, I heard that Joe Smith, former president of Capital Records/EMI announced,

[he] will donate more than 200 audio interviews with popular singers including Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney and others to the Library of Congress, officials announced Monday.

The gift includes interviews that Joe Smith recorded over two years while president of Capitol Records/EMI. He compiled the candid oral histories for his book, “Off the Record,” published in 1988. The collection includes interviews with dozens of big names, including Barbra Streisand, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and others.

Now the recordings have been digitized by the world’s largest library and will be available to researchers at its reading room on Capitol Hill. Some will be streamed on the library’s website later this year to provide wider access. NPR.org

Can’t wait to hear these. They played snips of several of the interviews. The link to NPR is above. If you want to read the press release from the Library of Congress, click here.
It’s amazing how fast the field of digital archiving is moving.

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Welcome to Digital Memorials and Cultural Archives!

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Nancy

Welcome to ILS652!
This is the class blog for Digital Memorials and Cultural Archives.

For the next five weeks you will find yourself immersed in the creation of a collection that will document the lives lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In addition we will help document the inspiring stories of rescue workers, corporations, and communities as they responded to these attacks. The creation of this digital archive will commemorate the lives and preserve the stories of these events for future generations.

Due to the intensive, condensed nature of the course being offered across five weeks, it is especially important that readings be completed prior to class and your blog and LibGuide entries be current.

Prior to the first class, log in and create a personal page where you will blog over the course of the next five weeks. Your first entry will be a brief bio of yourself and your expectations for this course. Please post only what you feel comfortable sharing in a public forum. In your post, give an accurate assessment of your skills that are relevant to digital archiving. These could include, but not be limited to, web design, HTML, CSS, image editing, familiarity with Dublin Core, etc. While these skills are not a prerequisite for the course, it will help to know who has what skill sets that we will be able to collectively call upon as we develop the 9/11 archive. If you aren’t familiar with WordPress, spend time exploring the features to familiarize yourself with its format. Like everything we will be doing this term, this blog is a collaborative effort. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you as we delve into the fascinating field of Digital Memorials and Cultural Archives.

If, for any reason, you don’t feel comfortable creating a page on your own, please feel free to let me know and we can arrange to meet before the start of class on June 26 to get this done.

* On this class site, every effort has been made to acknowledge the work of others. Any omission is unintentional. If anyone finds an oversight, please contact me at florion1@southernct.edu immediately so that any error can be corrected.

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