Oral History Projects
Time: 2025-09-17 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Large Hall A at Auditorium Maximum
Chairman: Mark Wong
Events within this Session
Oral History, Auto-Ethnography, and a Living Archive
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
The Malae Family Archive is aimed at repatriating oral histories and cultural memories of the Makassae people in Quelicai, Timor-Leste. It serves as a living archive bridging Timor-Leste’s past with the present, aiding post-colonial healing, relearning old customs and molding them for a new society, reinforcing the importance of preserving marginalized narratives in post-conflict regions. The archive turns photographs and recordings into community assets rather than fleeting displays, enabling the community to form relationships with their own history that feel personal, continuous, and capable of evolving. In a repatriated archive, photographs aren’t just records; oral histories aren’t just stories, they become threads weaving past, present, and future into a resilient tapestry of memory and identity for the community. The project explores the relationship between oral history, auto-ethnography, and archival preservation. The collection preserves ethnographic records from 1973-74, prior to Indonesia’s occupation, documenting the Makassae community’s traditions, stories, and daily life in original research conducted by my parents, Shepard and Leona Forman. On a recent family visit to the community in Quelicai, we saw how our old photographs and recordings inspired a community to speak. We left recording equipment and trained community leaders to record their stories. My practice in oral history, creating community-driven oral history archives, began in Brazil in 2017, when I founded the Urca Institute with the project Água!nabara and 115 interviews of Guanabara Bay residents and workers. We wrote a methodology on our application of RiC-O ontology with OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer) on the Omeka S platform, and are now applying it to the Malae Family Archive. This collaborative work using the interpretive and abstract standard for description for analyzing the relational attributes of the archive can inspire oral historians in Timor-Leste and globally by setting a framework for repatriation and digital accessibility.
Speakers
Nearby Economies: Integrating Oral History into American Business History
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
Oral history is an emerging research methodology for business historians. Some notable examples include Harvard’s Creating Emerging Markets project (https://www.hbs.edu/creating-emerging-markets/Pages/default.aspx) and the growing interest of management scholars in historical research as shown in the book Handbook of Historical Methods for Management (Elgar, 2023). Despite this growing trend, work often focuses on elites, prominent corporations, and high-ranking executives. This proposal explores the advantages of oral history in capturing the experiences of smaller businesses and local economies. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there are approximately 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S. as of 2023. In Florida, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) account for 99.8% of all companies, employing 3.6 million Floridians, representing around 41.1% of the state’s private workforce.1 The Gainesville Business History Project is adopting a “nearby history” approach, which encourages people to explore and document the history of their immediate surroundings—whether that be a local community, family lineage, neighborhood, or cultural artifacts—by focusing on the places and stories that are directly relevant to their lives.2 The archival record for small businesses is limited, so our project relies heavily on oral history to complement traditional sources, such as city directories, newspapers, and archival collections. By focusing on small businesses, we aim to capture the voices and actors within their economic and socio-cultural environments and ensure the experiences of everyday people are included in the broad narrative of business history. Additionally, by drawing on traditional oral history approaches rooted in social history, we believe there is a valuable opportunity for conversation between oral and business historians that can enrich both fields
Speakers
Preserving IFLA (International Federation Library Associations) Professional Memory: The SIG Library History Oral History Project
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
As IFLA’s centenary approaches in 2027, the Library History Special Interest Group (SIG) has initiated an Oral History Project to document the experiences of key IFLA figures. Our goal is to create a comprehensive portrait of the international library community, featuring IFLA Past Presidents, Secretaries General, and influential members who have shaped the organization. This Oral History project explores the interplay between local experiences and global trends in librarianship and IFLA role in internationalisation of the profession. Our methodology reflects IFLA’s international character. We’ve developed interview protocols in multiple languages, designed to elicit insights about professional journeys, IFLA involvement, and reflections on the field. For instance, our collaboration with Chinese colleagues to interview prominent Chinese library experts who have served on IFLA’s Governing Board demonstrates our commitment to capturing diverse international voices and experiences. This approach allows us to examine the evolution of library practices globally and IFLA’s influence on professional identities across cultures. To ensure ethical handling of these personal narratives, we’ve implemented a detailed Rights Agreement covering data management and interviewee rights, in accordance with established oral history guidelines. The Oral History Project had to agree on a workflow appropriate to the organizational structure of IFLA, using the available tools and also making choices for the management of each phase of digital curation. The project has faced several challenges. While using Zoom for remote video interviews has expanded our reach, it has made capturing non- verbal cues and building rapport more difficult. Additionally, finding interviewers with the right expertise has proven challenging. Despite these obstacles, we are progressing towards our goal of completing over 30 interviews. For dissemination, we are utilizing both YouTube and Internet Archive, balancing immediate accessibility with long-term preservation. By openly sharing our methodology and experiences, we hope to inspire and guide other professional communities in creating their own oral history projects, thus contributing to a broader culture of institutional memory preservation. This project demonstrates the dual role of oral history as both a historical record and a tool for professional reflection in library and information science. By preserving these narratives, we aim to contribute to discussions about oral history in professional contexts and inspire future librarians. Furthermore, this research offers valuable insights into the evolution of international librarianship, highlighting the past, present, and potential future challenges and opportunities facing our global library community.
Speakers
Oral History in Polish Community Archives – Research Results
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
here are nearly 800 community archives in Poland. They are bottom-up initiatives created by community groups or individuals to preserve the past. The most of them are focus on local history and collect oral history (about 1/3 community archives collects recordings). The paper will be a presentation of the results of research conducted in 2024 using a research survey (doctoral thesis). I expect to collect about 40 surveys for various entities maintaining community archives (e.g. libraries, associations, foundations, informal groups). In my paper I would like to consider for a few questions: how community archives gets oral history? Which method they use? How these stories may make a effects in local (or other) community? Where is the role of professional historians in this kind of testimonies?
Speakers
Tracing the Origins of Italian Oral History: A Case Study on Ernesto de Martino Institute and Its International Network
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
My proposal focuses on Ernesto de Martino Institute (IEdM) in Italy, established in 1966 in Milan by Gianni Bosio (historian) and Alberto Mario Cirese (demologist). IEdM is one of the first institution in Italy which collected and used oral sources as part of their political and cultural activities. They stand out for a specific interest in expressive forms of the “popular and proletarian world”. My PhD research investigates the international network of IEdM, exploring reciprocal influences between this institute and other oral history initiatives on a global scale. The study - which draws upon interviews I had with historical members of the Institute and the correspondence nowadays archived in the institute –highlights connections between IEdM and various intellectuals, institutions and record labels associated with ethnomusicology. Notable connections include Paredon Records, founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber, and Topic Records, known for the Radio Ballads produced by Ewan MacColl and Charles Parker. Furthermore, I pointed out new links with cultural institutions from the Socialist Bloc, such as the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and the Bartók Archivum in Budapest. The existence of this international network across both Cold War blocs has not been yet explored by historians. The role of IEdM in Italian oral history, its practices, and its international network prompts a reevaluation of the relationship between the early use of oral sources in historiography and related disciplines such as ethnography and ethnomusicology. IEdM, with its interdisciplinary approach, works as a significant case study for rethinking the pioneering use of sound sources and the role of oral history as a link of multiple disciplines.