Oral History Association Conference Scholarship
To provide professional development for staff and board members at the national Oral History Association conference in Minneapolis, October 4-8, 2017.
Available upon request. Contact grants@mnhs.org
The best session I attended, by far, was the Creating Digital Exhibits Using Oral History workshop by Janneken Smucker. This workshop introduced multiple platforms and tools (which were demonstrated as well as practiced in the workshop), to utilize oral history. From editing audio files, to creating a timeline, to embedding clips into open source platforms - the workshop provided ample time to investigate the platforms, ask questions, and test out options. I came away with a variety of ideas to develop online exhibits; work with our CAPS students to increase their skills and benefit the SCHS; add content to our school programs; and brought back more options to utilize our current oral histories.
Throughout the conference I noticed that OHMS was a topic of conversation both in and out of sessions. Although I was unable to attend the OHMS workshop on Sunday, I am confident that the contacts I made during the conference will provide me with a pool of resources to call upon when navigating OHMS on my own.
The key-note speaker, Dr. Jill Lepore, gave a great talk on the interconnections of story. I found her talk to be both thoughtful and inspiring.
Available upon request. Contact grants@mnhs.org