As part of the statewide Legacy partnership between Minnesota Historical Society and Minnesota's 12 regional public library systems, Barbara Sommer, author of The Oral History Manual will present three Oral History Workshops in the Lake Agassiz Regional Library (LARL) region. The workshops will cover the steps involved in carrying out an oral history project and will be geared toward researchers, historians, staff from local historical societies and museums, genealogists, college history departments, townships, schools/school reunions, and others interested in oral history.
Dates
Monday, May 9 - Moorhead Library
Tuesday, May 10 - Crookston Library
Wednesday, May 11 - Detroit Lakes Library
Time
9:00 - 9:30 am (arrival & refreshments)
9:30 am - 3:00 pm workshop
To Register
Contact Annette at the LARL Regional Office, 218-233-3757, ext. 120
About the presenter
Barbara W. Sommer
, a Minnesota native and an oral historian for thirty years, has spent her career in the field of public history. She has served as historical organization director and director or co-director for numerous oral history projects, has led oral history workshops, and has presented at state, regional, and national, and international conferences. She is a founder of the Oral History Association of Minnesota and the Nebraska Foundation for the Preservation of Oral History and is a long-time member of the Oral History Association where she serves as the liaison to the American Association for State and Local History. Sommer has taught oral history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Nebraska Wesleyan University.
She is the author of Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota, which was released by the Minnesota Historical Society Press in January 2008 and went on to win the 2009 Minnesota Book Award in the Minnesota category and the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award in the General Nonfiction category, as well as the Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH).
With Mary Kay Quinlan, Sommer is co-author of The Oral History Manual and The People Who Made It Work: A Centennial History of the Cushman Motor Works, and with Quinlan and Paul Eisloeffel, she is a co-author of Capturing the Living Past: An Oral History Primer, on the Nebraska Historical Society Web site. The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard by Charles E. Trimble, Barbara W. Sommer, and Mary Kay Quinlan was released in the fall of 2008. A second edition of The Oral History Manual was released in May 2009. An oral history toolkit is in development with Quinlan and Nancy MacKay. Sommer holds a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College and a master’s degree in history from the University of Minnesota.
Reviewer Comments
"The Oral History Manual has been a classroom standard since it was first published in 2002, praised by teachers for its logical organization of materials and completeness of topics, and by students for its easily understood descriptions, explanations and instructions...".