Archives Caucus

Mission

The Oral History Association Archives Caucus (formerly the OHA Archives Interest Group) aims to provide a forum for discussing best practices and generating interest in the intersections between Oral History and Archives.

Members will engage by regularly meeting to share their experiences with each other, identifying topics of interest or inquiry, and taking action to advocate for or disseminate their findings to the OHA, information professionals, and allied communities.

Timeline

  • 2013━ OHA Archives Interest Group (OHA-AIG) first met at OHA Annual Meeting in Cleveland Ohio. The group has met consistently at annual meetings since that time.
  • 2013-2014━OHA-AIG assisted in the evolution of OHA Metadata Task Force.
  • 2016━During OHA Annual Meeting in Long Beach California, OHA-AIG initiated a bi-monthly informal discussion forum to facilitate more frequent communication between OHA annual meetings. The group has held bi-monthly conference meetings since that time to discuss aspects of oral history archiving practice, share common concerns and expertise, and present particular projects.
  • 2017-2018━David Olson of Columbia University acted as convener for OHA-AIG forum and coordinated conference calls.
  • 2018━At OHA Annual Meeting in Montreal Heidi Abbey Moyer of Pennsylvania State University, and Tina Wright, of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, volunteered to become co-conveners (title was changed by the group during 2019 to more formal “co-chairs”) for 2019.
  • 2019━OHA-AIG members were invited to volunteer for the OHA Archives Principles & Best Practices Task Force and helped to draft an Archives Principles & Best Practices document to be presented at the OHA Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.
  • 2021━Jennifer Snyder of the Archives of  American Art at the Smithsonian Institution replacesTina Wright as an OHA-AIG co-chair, who completed her two year term.  Timothy Babcock of Penn State’s Special Collections Library replaces Heidi Abbey Moyer for a one year term as OHA-AIG co-chair to get the co-chairs to rotate on alternating years.
  • 2022━Steven Sielaff of Baylor University replaces Timothy Babcock of Penn State’s Special Collections Library as co-chair of the OHA-AIG.
  • 2022━OHA-AIG becomes OHA-AC as the Oral History Association asks each “Group” to rename as a “Caucus.” 
  • 2023━The Oral History Association moves from its tenure at Middle Tennessee State University to Baylor University.  Steven Sielaff becomes the Associate Director of the Oral History Association, requiring him to vacate his tenancy as OHA-AC co-chair.
  • 2023━James Fowler of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) was appointed co-chair to fill the remaining one-year term vacated by Steven Sielaff of Baylor University and Kopana Terry at University of Kentucky’s Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History was appointed to a standard two year co-chair term filling the seat vacated by Jennifer Snyder of the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.
  • 2024-2025━Aubrey Carrier at Wells Fargo and Kelci Nelson at the Gates Archive were named the new Archives Caucus co-chairs for 2025.

Areas of Practice Discussed

  • Audio​ ​preservation​ storage and standards
  • Automated transcription
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Collection management, tools, and systems
  • Communicating effectively with sound
  • Digital preservation
  • Multilevel indexing with OHMS
  • Policies of redaction
  • Recording equipment
  • Using OH  archives in the classroom
  • Update from the Metadata Task Force
  • Update from the OHA Archives Principles & Best Practices Task Force
  • Version control
  • Video preservation and standards
  • Managing websites and analytics

Meetings/Conference Calls

Zoom meetings are held on the third Tuesday (where possible) of every other month starting each year in January. Meetings typically include a Discussion of Practice or a Presentation followed by a group “Business Meeting.”  Discussion topics are determined by group interest, may feature a guest speaker or member of the group, and are coordinated by the Co-Chairs.

Contact Information

The OHA Archives Caucus invites all who are interested to join the Archives Caucus Google Group.  Please send an email to ohaaig+subscribe@googlegroups.com for discussion and conference call updates.

For more questions about the caucus, please contact the co-chairs: Aubrey Carrier (Aubrey.s.carrier@gmail.com) and Kelci Nelson (kelcin@gatesarchive.com)

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