Diverse Personnel in Libraries

Diversity

Identity

Interviewees

Interviewing

Life History

Memory

Mentoring

Oral Historians: Tasks and Roles

Oral History

Oral History: Definitions

Shared Authority

Spectrum Initiative

Storytelling

Trauma

Validity

• “It's precisely when we want to give up on collaboration that we most need to return to dialogue, try to listen, and open our own thinking to new strategies.” ⁱ
• “Collaborative oral history—sometimes called “reciprocal ethnography—involves the process of engaging our interviewees in the analysis of the interviews we generate and/or the creation of any products drawn from those interviews.” ⁱⁱ
• “Collaborative work is personally and intellectually demanding, requiring an ability—even the courage—to deal with people and situations that can be difficult; a certain tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty about how a project will work out; a willingness to take risks, not follow established protocols, and make decisions based on the logic of the work itself.” ⁱⁱⁱ
• “The recorded conversations of oral history … are joint activities, organized and informed by the historical perspectives of both participants. …” ^iv

ⁱ Rouverol, Alicia J., “Collaborative Oral History in a Correctional Setting: Promise and Pitfalls,” The Oral History Review 30 (1) Winter/Spring 2003, 82.
ⁱⁱ Rouverol, Alicia J., “Collaborative Oral History in a Correctional Setting: Promise and Pitfalls,” The Oral History Review 30 (1) Winter/Spring 2003, 61.
ⁱⁱⁱ Shopes, Linda, “Commentary: Sharing Authority,” The Oral History Review 30 (1) (Winter/Spring 2003), 106.
^iv Grele, Ronald J., “Movement Without Aim: Methodological and Theoretical Problems in Oral History,” In Grele, Ronald J., Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History 2nd ed. (Chicago: Precedent Publishing, 1985), 135.