ARCHIVES 2015 attendees will have an opportunity to tell their stories—to each other—in a StoryCorps audio-recording booth from Wednesday, August 19, through Friday, August 21, in the Cleveland Convention Center.
SAA has contracted with StoryCorps to audio-record up to eighteen pairs of archivists discussing, well, whatever they’d like! But we hope those conversations will include questions like “What was the moment when you first decided to become an archivist?” and “What do you love most about being an archivist?” and “What is your favorite memory of a user discovering something in the archives?” As with all StoryCorps recordings, these will be “archived” by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. SAA will also use snippets on our website to raise public awareness about archives and archivists.
StoryCorps recordings are forty-minute conversations between two people who know each other (friends, colleagues, mentors and proteges, etc.). If you’d like to participate, send an email message—by Friday, July 31—to saahq@archivists.org with “StoryCorps Participation” in your subject line. Include in your message: 1) Your name and contact information, 2) the name of your conversation partner, 3) a brief paragraph stating your reason for wanting to participate, and 4) your preference for a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday appointment. SAA will schedule interview times in one-hour increments between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm each day and will notify all volunteers of their selection and appointment time. We hope you’ll tell your story!