(Co)Constructing Public Memories: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Creating Born-Digital Oral History Archives

Abstract

VT Stories, an oral history research project with an interactive, Web-based delivery platform, was designed from initial concept through development to serve multiple purposes and to provide various audiences with a high level of digital engagement. Comprised of a collaborative group of Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students from multiple disciplines, the VT Stories team collects, analyzes, and shares oral history interviews for several purposes. This article details how these oral histories are fashioned for digital and social media use, incorporated into the university library's Special Collections, and made available for multiple research purposes. The standalone website, linked to the university library's Special Collections Online, is a unique archive that both contributes to the public face of the institution's history and at the same time functions as a repository for exploring multiple avenues of research. The article highlights how an oral history project differs when explicitly designed with such digital end use in mind. We also discuss the hands-on experiences of students as they take related classes, work as website developers, interview as oral historians, and manage the project from story concept to published Web content.