Digitization of Oral History Project: WWII Years, 1941-1946

Our short terms metrics are on target with expectations. One of the goals of this project was to provide access to materials that were quickly becoming inaccessible due to format and media degradation. By digitizing the project we have met those expectations. Additionally we have provided digital access to the materials allowing patrons to access the collection without physically visiting Concordia Special Collections; any access of this collection meets our target. With the launch of the collection we tracked 16 views of the collection in August, 3 views in September, and 4 views in October.

Intermediate to long-term: We have yet to do much promotion of the collection, but we plan to write a news piece for our blog which will be posted to various social media outlets. Metadata for the collection was recently harvested for DPLA with the hope that this will also increase traffic to the collection. Our library has been contacted by a group working on a 10-part documentary series, "The Home Front," about the potential possibility of using some of these interviews--which is great publicity for the collection. This contact came after a query to a posting on H-Net looking for oral history projects on American civilians during WWII years; we can continue to monitor for other projects that could utilize our resources and reach out to them as they come up.