Illuminating Your Church’s Past: Guidelines and Ethics for Conducting Oral Histories

Join Zachary Bodnar and Billy McCarthy, CLA archivists, for this CSI webinar focused on properly conducting oral history interviews – a great way for a church to learn about its own community, mission, and history through conversations with the members who lived through it.

Oral histories can be especially useful for churches with gaps in their 20th and 21st century records. But it is critical to follow strict rules and procedures to ensure they are conducted ethically and respectfully.

Zachary and Billy will discuss situations in which oral histories are a useful tool and other cases when they might be less enlightening. They will also provide advice for conducting an ethical oral history interview, including discussions on copyright, consent, and agreement forms. Finally, they will share some best practices, recommended technologies, and guidelines for recording oral histories.

This event is free and open to all, but registration is required via this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/2617748662405/WN_6poVS-aORLuwKEKFYm5IbA

After registering, you will receive an email with information about attending the webinar.

Email any questions to programs@14beacon.org.

SPEAKER BIOS

Zachary Bodnar graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science from Simmons University, with a concentration in archives management, in 2018. Prior to his work at the CLA, Zachary worked at the Bellamy-Ferriday House and Garden archive, the Vassar College Special Collections, the Harvard Law School Library, and the Harvard Botany Libraries. Zachary joined the CLA as an Archives Assistant in 2017, helping to prepare materials for digitization through the New England’s Hidden Histories program. In 2018, he took on the title of Archivist. His professional interests include metadata collection and management, digital archiving, audio/visual preservation, and archives management.

Billy McCarthy graduated with a Masters of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at Simmons University with a concentration in Archival Management. He started working at the CLA through a graduate internship and was hired full-time as an Archivist in 2018. Billy is the Head of Reader Services, helping the CLA’s visitors with reference requests and facilitating in-person research. Billy also serves as the collection manager for the archives, working with CLA’s offsite vendor to protect and maintain the organization’s archival records. Some of his professional interests include increasing access, collection management, processing of complex materials, and facilitating research.