2022-10-21 SPLAT Curiosity Report: Volume 12, Issue 10

Featured Story

Oral Histories

Oral histories are one of the amazing resources that libraries can provide space and gather. Oral histories and interviews allow people to tell their stories, provide context, and open a window into a time and place for generations to come.  Oral history projects can be designed around a particular event, or time, or place.  It can tell the story of a people, or how a community responded to world events.  Libraries are a great organization to gather oral histories, as well as provide them to the community. 

Oral histories projects can be supported in multiple ways.  One method is by preserving the past. Many libraries have dusty cassette tapes of recorded interviews, either in a Local History collection or hidden in a box in the corner of a storeroom. Libraries can convert those old recordings to a new digital format, thereby preserving them in a robust form for generations to come.  Library staff can take existing recordings and index the information in them.  This allows easier access to the information and highlight the different parts of the interviews and their story.

Libraries can also lead the effort to collect new interviews and preserve history.   Libraries can support oral history projects by the community or begin an oral history project of their own.  Oral history projects are a great way to collect the stories of yesterday, before they are lost, as well as the stories of today.  It is important to record our stories and information while they are available. Equally as important is to get a view of what is going on in current events.  Time changes our perspective, and we want to record what life is like now, in the moment.  One great tool that the University of California, Irvine Libraries has put together is an Oral History Toolkit.  The Oral History Toolkit discusses what oral history is, and why it is important to capture.  It shows how to design an oral history project, with checklists and information about how to prepare and conduct an oral history interview.  It also provides some additional steps, such as what do with the interview file and ideas about how to publish it. Check it out at Oral History Toolkit | Oral History (uci.edu).  [Vo Dang, Thuy, Krystal Tribbett, Jolene Beiser, Elvia Arroyo-Ramirez, and Audra Eagle Yun. Oral History Toolkit. Special Collections and Archives, University of California, Irvine Libraries, date accessed. oralhistory.lib.uci.edu.]

Idaho has a growing collection of oral history projects available online right now.  The Online Latah County Oral History Collection includes the stories of over 200 Idahoans.  Check it out at Latah County Oral History Collection – Digital Initiatives – University of Idaho Library (uidaho.edu).  The Oral Histories of the Post-1965 Lives of Asian Americans in Idaho is a project that began in 2020, and currently contains 16 interviews.  This is an ongoing project, and you can find out more about it at Oral Histories of the Post-1965 Lives of Asian Americans in Idaho (uidaho.edu). The Idaho State Historical Society has an online collection of Oral histories available at Oral History Collection – Idaho State Historical Society Digital Collections (oclc.org).

By Mike Sloan

Fail Forward

We’ve all been there. You pour your heart into a program, and no one shows up. You try something new, and you fall on your face. Sound familiar? Fail Forward is the place to share your failures, and give you the opportunity to share what you learned from them. Did you promote your program in a different way after no one showed up? Maybe you took a new approach to the new thing you were excited about? Awesome! Share your story via our online form so others can learn, and realize that failure is often part of the process.

FAIL FORWARD

I love having the option to sign up my patrons for Homebound Services with either an online form or with a paper form. Lately we have been having lots of sign ups, too, which is great! However…..the last time that we had a patron sign up I got all the information back to me correctly…except one line on the form asked “What pizza toppings do you want?” I was SO CONFUSED. I have never seen it ask for pizza toppings before. When I looked at it again, I saw that the original question was answered correctly, which was good, because it meant that the form was correct from the patron’s side. But when and why did it decide to ask for pizza? Truly strange! Luckily we were able to fix it.

By Monique Gaddy

Crush Corner

Is there a library you follow on social media who is always doing new and exciting things? How about a blog you follow that inspires you? What about a new idea, book, or resource that you want to share? Library Crush Corner is a place for those working in Idaho libraries to share what inspires them, and who or what they’re crushing on… in a professional sense. Share your story via our online form so we can publish it in a future issue!

CRUSH CORNER

Library staff wear many hats everyday, but one of the hardest for me is the social worker/mental health worker hat. It can be difficult to be in the midst of someone else’s worst day, especially with no formal training. But we adapt and help where we can. Many libraries are taking action by hiring mental health coordinators, which takes some strain off library staff and provides much needed assistance for patrons. Due to some very hard work by some dedicated employees, Boise Public Library just hired their first Mental Health Coordinator and I think that deserves a shout out.

By Maggie Dumont

SPLAT explores the ever-evolving library world and supports library folks as they adapt to meet the needs of their communities. Library folk throughout the state of Idaho volunteer to serve on the Special Projects Library Action Team (SPLAT). Learn more about SPLAT at splat.lili.org

SPLAT is brought to you by the Idaho Commission for Libraries and was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (LS-246156-OLS-20). The views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.