Why oral histories at LMAC?
Libromobile's goal is to center and cultivate the past, present, and future histories of BIPOC communities in Orange County. As an organization, LMAC encourages community members to document and take charge of their own histories. Oral histories are a method of digital documentation — one that can empower community members to take ownership of their own histories.
What support can LibroMobile provide?
Libromobile can provide technological or other resources, such as: microphones, headphones, laptops
and workshop spaces, like LibroMobile's community space, where one can conduct oral histories.
All of these resources are provided for the community to engage in digital humanities projects, such as the recording and formalizing of oral histories. See the resources below, created by UCI's 2023 and 2024 C-CAP TEACH cohort: an oral history zine, along with an audio-visual guide. These resources can form a step-by-step guide on how to conduct an oral history for our own families and communities, and how someone can check out materials and equipment to use for oral history work.
Why does my story matter?
Through history, BIPOC histories have often been ignored or silenced in the dominant mainstream. With that, BIPOC histories have been forgotten, or at the very least, deemed as unimportant. But what makes community-based archives and oral histories so empowering is that anyone and everyone's story can be important. Everything, even seemingly mundane and everyday things, can be — and is — an important part of our history, and should be remembered. Even when our memories fail, oral history work can leave a legacy, one our families and our communities can benefit from for a long time.
Send us an email, if you have any further questions or concerns.
What is Digital Archiving?
Using online tools to store important memories and documents as digital information.
Why should you Digital Archive?
How can LibroMobile help?
Photographs and paper documents, like birth certificates and tax information, can be lost or destroyed. To keep your documents and memories are safe, you can make copies. Online copies are one way to store your documents without the risk of natural disintegration. Digital Archiving can help you keep the stuff that is important to you safe and secure for a long time.
LibroMobile offers technology and resource support to help you create your own Digital Archive. You can use the community space to use the scanners, or check the scanners out to take them home with you for a limited time.
To get started, you will need:
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Important materials (photos, letters, government papers, notes, house deeds, car titles, journal entries, and more)
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Laptop (you can also use the LibroMobile community laptop)
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CZUR scanner and adaptor wire (picked up from LibroMobile staff)
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Epson scanner (provided by LibroMobile)
Send us an email, if you have any further questions or concerns.
RESOURCES: INSTRUCTIONAL ZINE
Confused about where to start?
Here's some resources to get you started on the oral history process.
Created by UCI TEACH's C-CAP Cohort of 2023, this zine outlines general things to know about the making and the importance of oral histories.
Zine in Spanish coming soon!
Scroll through the zine here!
Or click on this to see the full zine!
RESOURCES:
AUDIO-VISUAL
GUIDE
Created by UCI TEACH's C-CAP Cohort of 2024, this audio-visual guide hopes to be a supplemental guide to the previous year's oral history zine.
ENGLISH
SPANISH SUBTITLES
LMAC's Oral History Webinar Video with English Subtitles
Video del web de historia oral de LMAC con subtítulos en español
RESOURCES:
Oral History Sample - Local, Orange County Authors!
Click on an author's name to view their oral history.
More authors coming soon!
Don't know where to start your own oral history? Reference our sample oral history project!
You can get a view into how you could conduct your own oral history project, but you could also learn about some OC-based authors that are on LibroMobile's shelves!
