We are members of OHA and colleagues working together on best practices and decision making for metadata that is meant specifically for oral history interviews, projects, and collections. While our work is closely aligned with OHA’s Archives Caucus, our specific focus is metadata and what is unique to consider for oral history metadata. Archivists and librarians are not our only audiences; we seek to facilitate oral history metadata best practices across OHA’s broad and multidisciplinary community.
The working group is led by the former members of the OHA Metadata Task Force. Through our published survey results of metadata practices in the US, and our online tool for oral history metadata assessment and decision making, our message is that thoughtful metadata will help practitioners ensure their projects and collections are discoverable, accessible, and understood. Whether a collection is an analog offline collection or digitally available online, our approach and tools are meant to be applicable and useful to anyone working with oral history.
Working Group Leadership:
- Lauren Kata, Archivist and Academic Librarian, New York University – Abu Dhabi
- Natalie Milbrodt, University Archivist, CUNY
- Steven Sielaff, Senior Editor and Collections Manager, Baylor University Institute for Oral History
- Jaycie Vos, Special Collections Coordinator and University Archivist, University of Northern Iowa
