What is the value of “oral history metadata assessment?” In this hands-on, interactive workshop, you’ll be introduced to that question and the Oral History Association Metadata Task Force’s assessment toolkit for capturing, preserving, and sharing information about interviews and collections across the oral history lifecycle. The toolkit is designed to facilitate thoughtful decision-making about metadata regardless of system, schema, or software platform. 

Following a presentation of foundational information about oral history descriptive practices, the MTF instructors will facilitate small-group exercises designed around using the toolkit. The toolkit involves processes and steps meant to help both new projects set up quickly with descriptive rigor, and offer long standing projects a fresh but structured way to address missing pieces of their metadata puzzles. This methodology – shaped by a nationwide survey of oral history practices the MTF conducted in 2016-2019 – emphasizes how different projects and teams require different metadata decisions, and those decisions are based on a particular set of resources, goals, and limitations. The assessment process that participants will be guided through will also include an exercise to consider how to map system-agnostic metadata selections to existing standards in their home metadata ecosystems. Built into the four-hour workshop are small group discussions as well as a concluding Q&A session where participants will have opportunities to ask specific questions, share experiences, and talk through issues related to describing oral histories. 

Our aim is to offer a “train the trainer” style session on assessing the universal utility of these metadata elements as critical to creating, preserving, and making oral histories accessible to researchers, regardless of system or software platform. This workshop offers a holistic way of thinking about metadata that moves away from technical lingo and toward a shared understanding of what is useful to know about oral histories: no technical expertise is required for participation! It will be an excellent opportunity for peer learning and discovering contrasts and similarities in oral history practices across contexts.

Learning Goals:

Workshop participants will learn how to apply an assessment toolkit to their oral history projects and collections, and lead members of their team of stakeholders through the assessment process. 

Upon completion of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Articulate the needs and characteristics of your institution or practice
• Decide which metadata elements to capture, preserve, and share to meet those needs
• Identify current and future locations to store metadata elements
• Consider practical and ethical aspects of metadata capture throughout the lifecycle
• Use this toolkit at your own institution and with your own colleagues

More info on the Oral History Metadata Taskforce (OHAMTF)