Door County Speaks Oral History Kits: Coming to Door County Library Branches in 2020

2/24/2020

The Door County Speaks Oral History Kit is an exciting tool for promoting oral history projects, building community memory, and fostering deeper collaborations between public libraries and community organizations.

Each kit contains a set of tools for planning and conducting a professional-quality oral history interview: a Zoom H2n audio recorder, studio monitor headphones, a tripod and other essential accessories, and a resource binder with instructions for every stage of the oral history process.

Kits will be available for checkout in 2020 at every Door County Library branch.

The Door County Library would like to thank NFLS for its support for this ongoing project, through its 2019 Library Improvement & Innovation Grant, which funds programs in the areas of workforce development, lifelong learning, and/or technology.

Check out what other NFLS libraries have purchased with their grants here.

Get more information about the kits below:

The Door County Library’s “Door County Speaks” program makes pre-assembled kits of Oral History equipment and resources available for checkout at each of our library branches. Door County Speaks seeks to make oral history more approachable, achievable and fun for library patrons while encouraging the use of best practices. We want more people doing oral history, sharing stories, and bringing our community closer together.

Making a complex task like oral history approachable to everyday patrons was a serious challenge for our team. Boiling down the oral history process into – believe it or not -- a single sheet of paper was one of the most memorable moments in the drafting process. We also faced challenges in selecting equipment. We wanted to strike a balance between professional quality and ease of use, something we feel we have achieved with our audio recorder and other materials.

The rollout for the project took place over the last week of January at our library’s annual Door County Reads programming event. We presented the program in a one-hour talk at three library branches throughout the county. Responses were overwhelmingly positive, with representatives of multiple historical organizations in attendance. It was gratifying to see history-minded individuals responding so strongly to the project, confirming for us that we were addressing a real need in our community. We will continue to reach out to every community in our county over the coming months to support the success of the project.

The biggest change to the program so far is our timetable for rollout. Initially, we had planned to have kits available for checkout by January 2020. Inevitably, we underestimated the time it would take to put the finishing touches on our materials. Luckily, we had planned on a “soft rollout” schedule for the project during the quieter winter months, so we’ll be able to take our time and solicit the maximum amount of feedback from patrons as we move into summer. We are already planning additional programming and support activities following our project’s release in March.

With Door County Speaks, we envision a program that will be successful not just in our county, but in other communities as well. We wish to express our gratitude to the Nicolet Federated Library System for funding this initiative, and for the advice, expertise and technical support we have received through the WiLS Ideas to Action grant. These collaborations are helping to create a more robust project which will be valuable to libraries across Wisconsin.