Building Partnerships and Programs through Oral History: Los Angeles Public Library

0:04 Zack Ellis

All right. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Um, as we talk about oral history in action building partnerships and programs, uh, at the Los Angeles Public Library, uh, and really talking about their oral history program. Um, so I'm Zack Ellis, the founder and CEO of TheirStory. And, uh, in just a moment, I'll have, uh, Ani Boyadjian at the Los Angeles Public Library introduce herself, and we'll really focus on, uh, their journey, uh, at lapl, uh, just as some brief context, um, in terms of TheirStory, uh, itself. So we are a purpose built platform for the process of oral history, uh, and our supporting the work of over 120 organizations around both the United States, uh, and um, uh, and internationally and largely what we help organizations to address who are looking to embrace the power of audiovisual based storytelling is kind of the fragmented toolsets that they're having to stitch together to do this in a sustainable way. And, um, and the way we do that is by having an integrated, uh, platform across everything from how you might plan, uh, a project to recording, transcription, indexing. How do you preserve that in your own systems? Uh, edit and ultimately get that out to engage your audiences? Um, and that covers everything from remote interviewing to taking existing archival collections and uploading that to our system to transcription, indexing, clip generation and dissemination. Uh, so no matter the source and you'll hear a little bit about this today, uh, from Ani and Lapl own strategies for their oral history program, and a one place to manage and then get that content out. Um, but that's the last you'll hear of me, really, uh, sharing more about TheirStory itself. Today we're going to focus on, uh, Annie's story in Lapl story. Uh, so we'll have about 50 minutes, uh, today, uh, for, uh, the conversation. And please feel free to ask questions. Uh, throughout, I'll do my best to, uh, monitor, um, through the chat. Um, but also we'll certainly pause at the end as well for, uh, for Q&A if we're not able to, uh, address questions directly, uh, during the conversation. But we'll generally follow kind of three major acts, uh, today. So the origins of oral history at Lapl, uh, how the program really, uh, got reinvigorated, uh, in the last couple of years. Uh, and how, uh, Arnie and Lapl have built partnerships, both internal uh, uh, and built champions, uh, internally at Lapl, uh, but also external partnerships and, uh, and then think about what is the future look like. Uh, so with that, uh, I'll stop sharing my screen and we'll focus on, uh, just having a conversation. So, Arnie, if you want to go off mute, uh, would love if you wanted to introduce yourself and your role at Lapl and how you got involved in oral history.

3:32 Ani Boyadjian

Well, thank you, Zach, and I'm so excited to be here speaking to you all. Uh, welcome from everywhere around the States. This is amazing. Um, my name is Ani Boyadjian. I'm research and special collections manager here at Central Library. It's sort of a catchall for a lot of things. Um, I manage some subject departments here at central and some system wide initiatives. But other than that, I'm also the exhibition's liaison put on exhibits here at Central Library. We're going to be celebrating our 100th anniversary next year, so we're really excited about that and also helped reinvigorate our, um, oral history program. And I'm here to talk about that. And hopefully, um, you'll come away with something for your own institution. And I'd be happy to learn more about what you all are doing as well.

4:23 Zack Ellis

Wonderful. Um, so, Ani, tell us a little bit about the history of the oral oral history program itself.

4:32 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah. So, um, we've been doing oral histories for a long time, but it's been sort of hit and miss and sporadic. And it started with our shades of LA collection. So, uh, back in 1991, our then, uh, photo manager, Carolyn Cole, was sort of looking at our, um, photo collection, and notice that it wasn't really representative of all the communities of Los Angeles and didn't really tell the story of Los Angeles. And she decided to start some community collecting. And alongside that, in tandem with the collection of images, they did a handful of oral histories of different people in the community. And that was just about 12 oral histories. But that was the beginnings of our oral history project. Since then, uh, we haven't done too much until recently. We did have a Boyle Heights, uh, oral history, uh, uh, program that, um, did about six interviews, uh, concentrating on the 40s and 50s of Boyle Heights and, uh, of course, I think, uh, a lot of it was due to the fact that there was a technology barrier. Um, you know, doing an oral history is sort of like digitization. You think that, oh, you press a button digitization and it's done. Um, you know, our oral history program basically started with our digitization program, and we've been scanning for a very long time. We probably one of the first in the nation as a public library to have a digitization program in scanning since 1997. Um, but a lot of that, as anybody who does digitization work knows, there's a lot of prep that comes with it before work and after work. And it's the same with an oral history, um, not only prepping for the oral history and doing it, but at the time there were these, uh, you know, technology barriers you were recording with, um, you know, a machine. You, you know, if you've done it in the, in the past, you you had to press rewind and then you'd have to do all of the transcription work. So it took a really, really long time to get an oral history together. And, um, I think that, uh, since we've been using TheirStory, it's it's just removed that barrier so that we could overcome the other hurdles and barriers that happen in the library, which is staff bandwidth and resources.

7:01 Zack Ellis

So what you mentioned that there were other things got started with the photo collection, noticing gaps in the collection, which prompted kind of going out and collecting, filling those gaps through oral history and those kind of community voices. What? Um, but at the same time, there being those technical and logistical hurdles. What were some of the early successes that, um, motivated, uh, lapl to come back to, uh, oral history as a, as a focus, uh, in those, uh, those early days, despite challenges. Why was it important?

7:42 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah, it's really important, I think, because we recognize that oral history, Oral histories are, uh, you know, moments in time, their primary resource materials. They're somebody telling TheirStory in their own voice, from their own perspective, which is incredibly unique and also documents, um, something in history that might involve trauma or anything. Um, and it's a great way to capture the history of a of a certain time. And of course, I think we've all noticed that oral history has been living a renaissance lately, and their their oral history programs and initiatives popping up all over the place. At least I wasn't aware of it. I've noticed so many more lately, um, of crowdsourcing oral histories. For example, just in our backyard, um, the USC Armenian Studies Institute instituted, um, my Armenian story program, where, uh, they tried to crowdsource stories and have people give people the tools to do these oral histories themselves and participate in building a community oral history program. Um, but yeah, the early successes were just seeing how important oral history is, how significant it is, how, uh, of course, for a public library, we're all about representation. So we want people to see themselves in our collections, um, and tell the story of Los Angeles. That's really, really important for us. And I think that oral history program allows us to do that in a really easy and accessible way. And, um, and yeah, it's, uh, just recognizing the importance. And of course, uh, we also have a board of library commissioner who is an oral historian and is very interested in doing oral histories and has, uh, is one of our champions now and, and is really heavily invested in our oral history program.

9:41 Zack Ellis

Wonderful. It definitely helps to have, uh, uh, Someone so high up that is invested in, uh, in oral history itself. Absolutely. Um, yeah. Yeah. Uh, and at the same time, like you said, really aligns to the mission, uh, of the library, um, and including, uh, the community and representing the community in, uh, in its work. Um, can you talk a little bit to that point of how oral history has been built into some of the community engagement, uh, projects, uh, how it's used as primary source in the various programs within Lapl.

10:18 Zack Ellis

Yeah.

10:18 Ani Boyadjian

Yes, absolutely. Um, well, programming and outreach, uh, are any public libraries? Bread and butter. That's what we do and what we do. Well, and building community partnerships are really, really important to a public library because that's how we get more community engagement. And, um, right now, uh, we have a mellon grant, uh, going. We're were luckily recipients of a five year Mellon grant, uh, centered around personal archiving, um, that I co-wrote. And, uh, what we're doing as part of that personal archiving initiative is, uh, creating oral history kits that can circulate and go out into the community so that people can do their own stories and learn more, more about doing oral histories as well as personal archiving. So that is, um, something that we're going to launch soon. We also have what we call a mobile memory lab at, uh, lapl that has been a little dormant since the pandemic, but is, uh, we're going to pick up programming, uh, hopefully in the fall in tandem with this Mellon grant, where we go out into the community and teach people about personal archiving. So it's another opportunity to do outreach and pop ups so that we can, um, reach people in communities that we don't normally reach. We also, through the platform have been able to, uh, post collections. And that's also been a bridge to community partnership. For example, uh, we are also co-partners on another Mellon grant for the Los Angeles Public Library. That's called the Markings Project and that, uh, the leads there are a local organization called Ola, and they are doing intergenerational indigenous stories around the branch. So the oral histories might be in Oaxacan and languages that are, you know, you know, might be more difficult to transcribe. Uh, but they we are hosting their project and they're, they've already got over, I think, uh, 20 interviews done. Um, maybe more, uh, for that specific project. We also have partnerships with local organizations like, uh, Clock Shop and Clock Shop is a local organization that collects stories along the L.A. River. So there's there's lots of opportunities for intersections in the work that we do and ways in which we can support each other. And in turn, it gets the word out about our own stories. For example, part of our own Mellon grant, um, which will happen in year four of our grant, is telling the stories of the unhoused populations of Los Angeles. Well, you know, uh, the Los Angeles Poverty Department has already been doing a lot of work in that regard. They've collected lots of oral histories already, and I wasn't even aware of them until recently. So, um, I think becoming a voice for smaller institutions is also something that we do through these partnerships and by hosting collections on our site. Um, it's part of a stewardship, uh, role that we take very seriously as a public library.

13:34 Zack Ellis

It's interesting to hear the combination of being able to amplify community voices. Um, that maybe you're helping to gather new kind of currently like the Ola initiative, but also helping organizations that have existing archival, uh, oral histories and, uh, and amplifying those, uh, those collections, uh, as well through lapl and then your own, um, institutional stories. Um, I want to come back to, um, some of the challenges that you had talked about around capacity, around the different logistical aspects. You mentioned that TheirStory has been a boon in, in that way. Um, I'd be curious to hear maybe a little bit about those early days of, um, being introduced to to TheirStory. How did you how'd you first learn about TheirStory? And, um, and what convinced you in those early times that this was something that could aid in reinvigorating the oral history program.

14:42 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah, thanks for that question. I think it's I do remember the origin story for TheirStory. Um, I think that, uh, you know, for any oral history program or in any initiative that a public library or any institution these days undertakes, there's always going to be the issue of time and staffing and bandwidth and resources and librarians, like any other, we wear many hats. You know, this isn't my my only job. And it's probably not the only job of somebody who's interviewing and doing an oral history on staff. So, um, there's always a question of resources and time. Uh, I think I was at a CLA in Santa Clara in 2018, and I was walking through the exhibit hall and I saw something called a listening station there where iPads that you can record oral histories on. And I thought, wow, that's really cool. You can just sit in front of this iPad and tell your story. And I later found out that we already had them at Lapl, but nobody, you know, advertised it and they were sitting and not being used. They were purchased at one point, um, almost around the same time that I saw them. And, um, it was it just got me thinking of, wow, why aren't we doing more oral histories and and how can we do them? And then during the pandemic, we had what was called a. And it's a collection on our digital collection site. Tessa. Um, the Los Angeles Covid 19 Community archive. So, uh, one of our librarians was just doing a walk around our block, and she saw a piece of artwork taped on a on a pole. And it just got her thinking like, oh, why aren't we collecting this stuff that sort of documents this time in space in our, in, in, you know, um, just sort of while we're processing this and we're still processing everything about that time. But she came back and she pitched this idea. She's like, why don't we start an archive? And, um, we started collecting images and documents. So people standing in line at Costco with toilet paper and, you know, people going into somebody's submitted artwork of empty. Trader Joe's shelves and and all the stuff that we remember from that time that might be useful for somebody in the future. And I think at some point you must have seen or heard about the Covid 19 archive because it was written about and you reached out to one of my colleagues, um, in our engagement and learning division and, uh, told her about TheirStory. And then she talked to me about it, and she's like, hey, Annie, I saw this, uh, platform, TheirStory, and it looks like something that would be really cool for us. And I think the rest is history. I just I reached out to you, Zach, and then we just, uh. We've never we've never stopped communicating since, I think. And, um, we realized that, hey, this is a really great way for us to get this oral history program off the ground. And we started as just with the starter package, and now we're foundational partners. So, um, we have a great relationship. And I think that, um, it's really been wonderful to institutionalize the oral history program at Lapl. And that's, that's basically what we've done. So I'm very, very proud of that.

17:54 Zack Ellis

It's, um, it has definitely been exciting to kind of start small, kind of figure out how to pilot and then how to grow that relationship and how to build capacity through partnerships. And, um, yeah, it's it has been I think we've, we've taken a, a smart path to start small proof of concept and, and then grow, grow from there. I'm curious when, um, like you said, capacity is an issue, especially public libraries. Everyone's wearing so many hats. Um, And there's all these other logistical challenges. What, if any, reservations did you have about, um, trying to double down on your investment in oral history or in using TheirStory itself? And how has that compared to your experience over the last couple of years, both with with TheirStory, but also now, um, figuring out how to address any of those concerns?

18:56 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah. I mean, it's just like I said, it's removed the technological barrier. So it makes things so easy. When we started our oral history program, we decided to concentrate on three areas. One is community stories. That seemed obvious enough, but we also wanted to do institutional stories. We have like a brain trust of retired folks or people who are about to retire, who hold the history of Central Library in their heads. And we wanted to tap into that and make sure that that's recorded. And then, um, I added an extra layer, um, archival storage, which is near and dear to my heart because I'm in special collections and archives, and I wanted to capture the stories of people donating to us. Why do they donate their archive? Why was it significant to them to donate to the Los Angeles Public Library? What do they hope people using their archive experience and giving context to that archive in a living way, I think is something that, you know, would be really, really cool to do. And that's what we've been doing to interviewing people who are doing, um, donated archives to us and getting their, their, their feelings and their context has been really, really rewarding. And, um, again, I think, uh, the TheirStory makes it so easy because you can have a zoom session where, you know, somebody is remote and you can remotely interview them, or it doesn't have to be done that way at all. I mean, we've done so many more of our interviews. In our podcast room, we have a makerspace. We're lucky to have a makerspace here at Central Library, the Octavia Lab, and we have two podcast rooms, and I've done many interviews in those podcast rooms. So it's audio only, and I think it's a lot less pressure when you're not on video. And people people enjoy that and they love coming into the library. Whenever I say, hey, do you want to do a zoom call or do it in our podcast room? Guess which wins? They're all they're all about coming to into the library. So they're like, we'll be there. And, um, and we do it in our podcast room and it's really great. And then you just upload from any source, um, into the platform and it does an automatic transcription. Well, the automatic transcription is like magic. It's like amazing. And, uh, if you've done an oral history the hard way, you know, that, you know, transcribing takes most of the work. And, um, it's very, very accurate. I would say like 95% plus accurate. Of course, you have to go through the whole thing again, but it just makes it really easy. Um, I know that Zack is working on languages. I actually tested out the Armenian, and it was a sort of Google translate. So I know you now have a lot of more work to do in that regard, but I think that the Spanish, uh, works pretty well as well. So, um, you know, just those lifting those barriers for doing the work is so makes it so much easier for staff to jump in and use this platform. And it's been easy for the collections that we're hosting too. So I already mentioned that we're hosting collections. Uh, we are. We just signed an MOU with LA. So LA Act Up is an organization that's been around since the 80s, um, recording, uh, people with HIV Aids, um, they have, uh, almost 100 interviews recorded on 4K on video. And we'll be hosting that collection. Um, because, you know, the three members of Act Up came to my office one day and they were like, you know, we're getting old and we don't know what's going to happen with this and where it's going to live. And you guys hopefully are going to be around for another 100 years, which is our hope. And, um, would you, you know, steward this collection and host this collection and make it accessible. And we were like, yes, absolutely. So we're hosting that collection, as well as the markings, which I mentioned about the intergenerational indigenous stories. But I've also been getting, uh, you know, questions and calls from local smaller institutions, uh, smaller historical archives. Um, even the Japanese American National Museum has a collection of oral histories. They just reached out and we were talking about whether we can host or not. And I think that's part of our, uh, you know, our calling card also as a public library is the stewardship of things for others and, um, for access and discoverability. And, and I think it's wonderful that not only have we been able to use this platform for building on our own collections, but we're also helping Helping, you know, shepherd other people's collections and other institutional collections that also tell the story of Los Angeles. And I think that's really, really cool. And now, uh, you know, obviously they're available through our digital collection site, but we also want to load them into our content management system so that they'll be available through Calisphere and Dpla and other points of access so that it's not just you have to come to our site to take a look at this, um, kind of thing.

23:53 Zack Ellis

It sounds like one of the major benefits for, um, other community organizations is both the kind of stable, uh, nature of lapl. Um, uh, ideally. And so one is as an archive, it's a, a place that organizations can feel comfortable that there will be long term, uh, access or preservation for the materials and also expanding the reach, um, both through the existing audience that you have, but also connections, like you said, to other places. So creating multiple access points, Calisphere, dpla, um, and so on.

24:36 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah. And when we host the collections, you know, we're not taking ownership of that stuff. We're providing access to it. So if there are any rights issues like for lacked up um there la act up the trio who are behind it are going to hold on to the rights for that collection until the last one of them passes per the MOU. And then, um, any question that comes up, if anything needs to be, uh, you know, used for a documentary or for any reason at all, that question will be bounced back to LA act up. So we're we're really are hosting the collection and providing access to it. And there is really no question of ownership there until you know which time the it passes along to us, but that it'll be the same with the markings project. If anybody wants to do anything with that collection, they'll reach out to, um, the people behind the markings project, and they'll be directed there, um, for, for access purposes. And, you know, also with La Act Up, there are a few that, um, they're private, you know, uh, the interviewees don't want, um, their oral history accessed until after they pass because they probably mentioned people who are living, etc.. Um, so there are all those rights issues and, um, yeah, it's it's a, it's a, a difficult space to navigate sometimes. But, um, I think that, you know, at the bottom line is we're providing access to the collection and that's a good thing.

26:10 Zack Ellis

And how does Lapl um, so in terms of the benefits for for partners access, uh, sustainability. Uh, they can continue to maintain ownership of the collection. Really important. So you really are acting as stewards. Um, what have been the main benefits for, uh, lapl in, um, partnering with the communities in this way?

26:36 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah. I mean, we we are all about partnerships. So it is very important for us to, um, have active community partners because that goes beyond the oral history. There are lots of ancillary or other things that come out of these kinds of partnerships. For example, um, I'm planning an exhibition, uh, with LA Act Up for late 2027, um, featured around their oral history collection in celebration of, you know, Aids day. And, um, that's just something that came out of this relationship of hosting the collections. So there's always some kind of other benefit in terms of programming or, you know, exhibitions or um, just, you know, coming up with something, something that, um, that we want to work on together. Even another grant opportunity. I mean, these kinds of things come out of these partnerships and programming and outreach and community engagement is very important to public libraries because, you know, we're evolving from a space where you can get books to a space where you can get what you need. You know, we're sort of a one stop shop. We provide, you know, you can come get your high school diploma with our career online high school, or you can get, you know, finish up your citizenship papers with our New Americans initiative. There's just so many layers, um, that is beyond, um, access of stuff, you know. And, um, I think that, uh, these kinds of partnerships help build on that and always put us in touch with other people who, you know, at the end of the day, sometimes they're also donors. Their donors, and they want to donate their archives. I mean, we had a relationship with the Brockman Gallery before we acquired their archive. The Brockman Gallery, uh, is um, was a gallery in Leimert Park in Los Angeles, uh, started by two African American brothers who wanted, uh, you know, a black or brown kid walking past the gallery, art gallery to see themselves in an art space. And lots of seminal artists like Charles White, David Hammons came out of that gallery. It was a really amazing time and, um, really revolutionary, um, art gallery. And, um, he was courted by many institutions in Los Angeles, some which offered money for his archive. And he was very steadfast in wanting to donate his archive to a public institution so that everyone could be able to access it. That was very, very important to him. So I think that as a public institution, that is something that is, um, is really important to our partners as well. Our community partners recognize that, um, we are here to serve the public and, and, and for the public good. And, um, that is, uh, that is really that integrity is really important to us as well.

29:37 Zack Ellis

I, I like how it's not just about the, the recording itself. It's also about the relationship that is being built through through the process. And that can be generative in many other ways. Um, yeah, yeah. And the library from, uh, a place where you get your books to a place where kind of meet your needs, uh, whatever that that might be. Um, right.

30:01 Ani Boyadjian

Exactly.

30:02 Zack Ellis

Yeah. Yeah. Um, what do you hope that Angelenos or people outside of Los Angeles gain from accessing the stories, um, themselves. Or what, if any, anecdotes do you have about, um, responses you've heard from, uh, the public?

30:23 Ani Boyadjian

Um, I, I'm very, very, very happy that we have the TheirStory platform because it makes us it makes it so easy for us to build on our oral history program. Um, I think that we've we've been using it in lots of ways. And with central 100 coming up, uh, we are going to use it also for testimonials so that people can record, uh, what they love most about the library in their own words. So there's lots of different ways that it can be used. Um, besides an oral history platform, you know, our oral histories, uh, basically run about an hour, hour and a half. Um, they're not crazy in-depth long ones, except for some of our institutional ones, which have, like four parts because, the librarian has a lot to say about the institution. But in general, there are, you know, an hour and an hour and a half in length. It's accessible to people. Um, and I think people like sharing TheirStory. They want to tell TheirStory, and they want to show how they're a part of Los Angeles. And I think it makes it easy for them to do so. Um, and I'm, you know, looking forward to building on that. Currently we have about 20, um, librarians who are, you know, doing interviews. And hopefully we'll we'll build on that. Uh, and, you know, a lot of it, like you mentioned, um, you need to have your champions in an institution, and a lot of that comes peer to peer. You know, it's not me as a manager saying, hey, it's the oral history program is great. I want you to interview, you know, it's it's the person doing the interview who's reaching out to another librarian and saying, hey, this is really great. Um, I just did an interview on X. Do you have people in your, um, in your branch that come in that, you know, would like to be interviewed, who have an interesting story and everybody has one. Everybody knows. And, um, it's a great way, uh, you know, that that peer to peer championing is really important. And we hope to, to harness that, um, recognizing that, um, staff are, you know, tired and overworked and don't have enough resources, but it's a fun thing to do. So, um, I think, uh, you know, over time, uh, it's only going to grow. And it's, it's really exciting to be at this, at this point where we're we're sort of taking off.

32:42 Zack Ellis

I want to come back in a second to that idea of building champions and having 20 librarians that are a part of interviewing and a part of the program, uh, I think is an amazing milestone. And so I want to ask in a moment about how you've marketed the program internally, how have you built those champions? Kind of the questions you get asked, all of that. We have a question in the chat from Tom Brown. Um, so I just wanted to bring that up. So Tom asked, at this point in time, which of your oral history collections is being used or checked out the most? Um, I know some of these are also just in and the phases of getting started. Um, um, so maybe it's which ones, um, uh, have the most progress or most collection, whatever that however you want to interpret. Um, but at this point in time, which of your oral history collections is being used? I checked out the most. How is how have, um, those collections become known or more widely, uh, used? Um, I think maybe just to tag onto that, um, is how are your the organizations that are approaching you or the communities that are approaching you? Um, how are they hearing about the program?

33:55 Zack Ellis

So.

33:55 Ani Boyadjian

Um, yeah, I think, you know, a lot of times things are buried in a website and you don't really find it until you start poking around the website. So a lot of it is word of mouth. A lot of a lot of it is the the relationship, personal relationships we have with institutions. Um, for example, I told the story of not knowing about the, you know, the Skid Row interviews that were done because they're on a website that I didn't know about. I feel like Los Angeles Public Library, it's there's more name recognition. And, um, people maybe poke around our website more than other websites. So, um, they can discover things. Um, and mostly I think it's, it's word of mouth as far as the collections most being used and we're still building those collections are some of those hosted collections that I mentioned are still on the back end. So they are not made available yet, but they will be soon, um, as soon as all of the transcription and uploading of them and all that, all that great work is done. But, um, probably the institutional oral histories and the archival oral histories at this time, because we're actively trying to tap those people who have institutional knowledge, especially with our anniversary coming up. We had two very long time librarians who were so important to the history of Central Library, who recently passed, and we didn't get an opportunity to interview them. And it's really, really unfortunate that, you know, we sort of were not able we were not able to do that. And we don't want that to happen in the future. We want to be able to interview as many people as we can. We have, uh, a retired librarian who's in her 90s who sadly also lost her house in the Palisades Fire, and, um, is still upbeat and living in Oceanside. And we want to drive over to her and she can't get on her computer. We try to do a zoom call with her to interview her, and it didn't work out. So we're going to go visit her and and make that happen. So there's a lot of, you know, racing against time with our institutional oral histories, with the archival stories. It's it's been really fun to bring our archives to life. I've learned so much more about our archives, just interviewing the donors of the archives that it's been really, really fun. Um, but yeah, I think that as our collections grow, um, I hope that they'll be, uh, discoverable and used more than they they currently are. And like I said, we're we do want to make sure that they there are different points of access. So we're loading them into Contentdm and making them available through our digital asset management system, which is feeds into Calisphere and Dpla. So there are lots of different points where people can discover us. Um, I think the more ways people can discover us and, you know, a lot of it also is, you know, uh, incumbent on how well we promote stuff, uh, through our social media and, um, just featuring it and making sure that people find out about us. And this, you know, doing webinars like this is a is a way to to let people know about the work we're doing and hopefully hear about what other institutions are doing, too. I'm always interested in hearing what other institutions are doing. And, um, Zach, you know, you've, uh, all of our foundational partners, we sort of have a little hub and we have quarterly meetings, and it's really great listening to all of the other institutions on the work that they're doing. And we all get so many ideas from each other and, um, you know, share best practices and, uh, how how we can make it easier for staff to do this. But when we first started, like, you know, I didn't have an oral history background, uh, we did workshops, um, we, uh, organized training. We made sure that we did some of that homework ourselves, and, um, presents, like, keep presenting over time. You have two people that are interested. Then the two people become six people and six people become 15 people. And all of a sudden you have a little core group that is really interested in doing this. And I think it's easier with the oral histories because people love doing oral histories, and if they're given the tools and the, you know, other techniques on how to do them, uh, and there's so much out there we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Um, it makes it easier for people to engage in and and start, you know, working with us on it. So. Yeah.

38:33 Zack Ellis

What, what have been some of the, um, challenges in building internal champions or maybe the questions that you get, the reservations that that you hear? Uh, I mean, you've done, uh, clearly such a good job of, like you said, starting with, you know, maybe it was a couple people that that were interested. You were were just getting familiar with oral history. How have you gone about building up those internal champions? What questions have you most commonly, uh, gotten? And and how do you, um, help alleviate those, those concerns, um, and, and grow the momentum like you have.

39:12 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah, I think the platform is versatile, so it makes it easy. You can do it remotely. Um, uh, it's just a stable internet connection and a zoom call. So that really, really, really helps, um, finding the time and the and the bandwidth to do it, of course, is always going to be the biggest challenge of all. Um, but, you know, we are a huge system. So there there are people that I don't know who are out there who have their own podcasts, and I've discovered them or have done oral histories in the past. And, um, just connecting with our own staff has been a rewarding part of this process. You know, we're a big system. I, I work at Central Library. There might be somebody at the branches that I don't know about. And, um, we've been through having these informational sessions and talking to people, um, connecting with staff who are, um, have done oral histories or have done podcasting and are really, really good and want to participate. So I think over time, um, um, that, you know, just organically happens. Um, I'm looking at the chat and it says one of the focuses is working with seniors, uh, how to make the process easier for them. Yes. Uh, that can be a challenge. And I just brought up the, uh, the example with Renee Day, our, um, retired librarian who was having trouble with her computer. It always helps, uh, to maybe, uh, if they can come in to the library and, uh, have somebody show them. Of course, we have cybernauts at our libraries who assist people with these kinds of technology issues, so that's always helpful. Um, if there's somebody that can help them at home, just log on and, um, you know, we're halfway there with, with, with the zoom interview, so they don't necessarily have to come in. But yeah, making older adults comfortable with technology is is a hurdle. And just, you know, we have a class called Computer Comfort at the library. We let people know that there's nothing they can break. Um, and um, we start from there. So I think that it's a, it's a process of, um, you know, educating is is a process. And it works. It works. Um, I have another question here. Do you have any advice for librarian who does not currently have oral history as part of their job? What we're propose doing an oral history project for the library. Yeah. Um, I was, uh, I have a gazillion other things other than oral history on my plate, so I was not really expecting to become this champion for oral history. But you recognize the time, and you recognize a moment, and you feel like, okay, I can make this happen, and I can move the needle. Um, I would, you know, I pitched it to admin, and I said, a b c d e. This is why we need this. This is what we have and this is what we can have. Um, and I think that, uh, I would always, you know, talk to, you know, I would say for, for a librarian, you can put together an exploratory group to talk about it with your peers and then, um, see, you know, what would work best for you and make a pitch, uh, to admin. And, uh, I think that, uh, they would probably want to do an oral history project. I think it only brings value to a value added thing for the for the institution. Um, there's a question about the Mellon Memory Project as Ola. Uh, where are those interviews being preserved? Yeah. Great question. So those interviews, uh, the way TheirStory works on the back end is you can assign a project to an institution. So, um, I can create a project, a folder. They have access to that folder only. So everybody working on the markings project can access the folder. They can record interviews. They can, um, as soon as they upload them, the automatic transcription happens. So what happens? And there's also a question about the automatic transcription process. So when you upload the the file, the WAV file or whatever, um, the file, it automatically transcribes the interview. It doesn't take very long. Um, and the transcription, uh, is really great. And then you go in and it'll say. Speaker one. Speaker two, it'll break it down. It also, uh. Using AI, uh, creates an index and keywords and creates, uh, you know, a little summary or abstract of the different parts of the interview that it finds. So it's really, really powerful tool. Um, frankly, I've used TheirStory just when I've done some blog posts and interviews with people. I've just uploaded the files, uh, of my interview, just so I can get an automatic transcription. So it's not even an oral history, but I'm using it, um, for that. Those are very, very powerful transcription features. And I think, um, Zach, you could probably talk more about, you know, what's happening there on the back end, but it's really also nice because you can separate clips of, uh, the, the oral history that you want to extract for something. And, um, there's also other features, um, of the, of the back end that we haven't even tapped and used yet. I hope, I hope I've answered all the questions in the chat, but keep them coming. I'm loving the questions.

44:49 Zack Ellis

Absolutely. Um. I'm curious, just looking back on the last couple years of reinvigorating the oral history program, what what are you most proud of? And if you were to do it again, what would you change, if anything?

45:07 Ani Boyadjian

Um, I'm very proud that we we brought TheirStory to the institution and that we're using this platform now because we've basically institutionalized our oral history program. Um, and, you know, I was just talking with the the chair of our oral history program is Christina Rice, who manages our photo collection. And we were just chatting, and, uh, you know, it wouldn't have been possible if we didn't have TheirStory because there were just too many barriers of how to record. And, you know, just the transcription alone and some recording in 4K Videos, some on audio, some it's there was just there's just too much. And this is sort of like the platform is really a one stop shop where you can load all these different kinds of interviews and get the automatic transcription and have the indexing and, um, have a file that is ready for, you know, um, for viewing on your site. So TheirStory is the back end and aviary is the front end. And what you what you see on our digital collection site is the aviary site, um, that we've organized according to these, uh, different areas of community, institutional, archival. And then soon we'll have the LA act up and, um, and all our projects up. Now, they're they only exist in projects on our back end right now. So if you look at our digital collection site at Lapl.org, you're not going to see them just yet. Until until they're done. Um, but I'm very proud of that. that, uh, that we now have, uh, what what can be seen as a sort of formal oral history program that I think is, is going to grow wonderful.

46:53 Zack Ellis

Um. What are your hopes for the future of of the program as it continues to grow? Um, and how it serves lapl, how it serves the communities you partner with the public. Um, what do you hope, uh, will positively change over the next year? Several years?

47:17 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah. I hope that we can capture many more community stories, because that's the area where we're, uh, you know, we're we've been concentrating more on institutional and, and, um, archival stories. And, you know, with our central 100 celebration around the corner, we want that to be an opportunity to capture more stories from our community. We don't have a lot of those stories right now. And, you know, traditionally in a public library, people have collected, you know, the staff have collected mostly reflection of themselves. You know, when I first started, for example, we have a California index that's amazing resource for all things. California has over 500,000 entries from local newspapers. Well, it doesn't have entries on it from any, you know, Armenian or English language dailies that feature people from my community or from other, uh, you know, community of Los Angeles. I've been around for a very long time, so it's very homogeneous. And we want that I think is another focus of the Lapl program. Oral history program is to feature more of those voices and people who are not so greatly represented in the library's collection, so that, you know, ultimately, everybody sees a reflection of themselves in the library and they feel connected to the library and, um, you know, um, want to donate possibly wonderful things from their connections collections to the library. So I think it's just like a domino effect.

48:52 Zack Ellis

You mentioned everyone being represented in the collections. Uh, maybe a personal question. I mean, if you could be a part of any oral history project, um, whether that is existing or that has not yet been created. Um, what oral history project would you want to personally, uh, be a part of and share your story as, as a part of if you could or or or just start yourself if you were to start any oral history project, what what would that be?

49:21 Ani Boyadjian

Yeah. There are so many digital, uh, community archives that are coming up that feature, you know, uh, an area or a community, um, uh, any kind of ethnic, community. I mean, for me, um, my, you know, I think back to my mom. My mom is a displaced person, uh, from the Ukraine during World War two, who, um, all the Armenians in the, in Crimea were, uh, uh, pushed out of the, of the Crimea by the invading German army and then moved to Germany and lived in a camp there for seven years. And in 1997, I remember attending a reunion with my mom with all of those displaced persons. And if I had TheirStory, then, oh my God, all of the stories that we would have captured then, like it didn't never occurred to me that that would be something, um, they had these amazing photo displays and people brought their home photos and, and and but I but I think that wow. If, if, if we had a platform like this, then that would make it so easy to capture stories and I would have done that. Um, luckily, um, USC undertook a huge initiative to collect those stories of the displaced persons of World War Two and, um, many people, including my mom's brother and, uh, people from that community, uh, Russian Armenians were interviewed. So that happened ultimately. But, um, we could have done it when they were all in their prime. And, um, if I were to go back in time, I would say that that would be something that I would have wanted to do for sure. Yeah.

51:07 Zack Ellis

Absolutely. It would have been, uh, obviously a very personally meaningful, uh, project to be able to undertake. Yeah, yeah. For sure. I see, um, one last question here in the chat. Uh, so we'll do our best within time.

51:25 Ani Boyadjian

We have does have a collection of analogue tapes and transcriptions.

51:29 Ani Boyadjian

We do have a collection, um, of the night from the 1984 Olympics, of the 1984 athletes interviewing the 32 athletes. And that is just an incredible collection. Um, all on cassette, um, that we own. Um, that's a physical collection, but that would be like the only physical collection that we had. So we've been talking about, oh, what are we going to do in 2028? You know, the Olympics are coming to Los Angeles. Maybe this is a great opportunity for the athletes of 2028 to interview the 1984 athletes and continue with the tradition. So I've, uh, I've pushed that pushed that idea up the chain. We'll see if somebody bites and takes that on. Um, we have locally, um, you know, obviously there's a la 2028 committee. So they're soliciting lots of ideas. And locally we have, uh, LA 84. It's a small organization that collects, um, all things related to the 1984 Olympics. Um, so, yeah, uh, those are the, I think the only analog tapes that we have in our collection. Thanks.

52:41 Zack Ellis

Um, any parting advice that you would give for anyone, whether it's at a public library or another cultural institution that is thinking about getting started with oral history?

52:51 Zack Ellis

Uh, at the moment. Oh,

52:51 Ani Boyadjian

Oh, yeah. If you haven't started one, dive right in. Don't be afraid. And, uh, if you have questions, uh, ask us, you know, feel free to reach out to me, ask other institutions that have been doing it for a long time. You know, UCLA has had an oral history program forever. So, um, institutions are have been doing it for a very long time. And small historical societies also have been doing it for a very long time. There's also Oral History Association conference, and I think it's coming up in Atlanta in October. And I'm hoping hoping that I'll be able to go. I'm not sure, but it will be really wonderful. And, uh, you know, find places where you can connect with people who are already doing this work so that, uh, to inform your own. But I would say, um, to jump in and do it and it would be a wonderful thing for for your institution.

53:46 Zack Ellis

Anything else that, uh, that I haven't asked or that, um, you feel remiss not to share before we wrap?

53:55 Ani Boyadjian

No. I'm just really thankful for this opportunity. I wish I could hear more from everybody else. I thank everyone for their questions. Um, it's really great. Um, you know, trying to answer. I don't profess to be an oral history expert at all, but, um, I have the boots on the ground, uh, experience of, you know, pushing, pushing it through, um, to create, you know, help create a program at, at my institution, which is a very large public library and, um, happy to be a resource for anyone. Um, or connect them with others, uh, on, you know, getting getting this done. So I thank you for the opportunity for, you know, to talk about this and talk up lapel stuff, too. And, uh, hopefully everybody comes away with a better understanding of what public libraries do as well.

54:48 Zack Ellis

Well, thank you so much to you as well for your time and for sharing your own stories. And thanks, everyone, uh, for asking questions and being engaged in the chat. Uh, we'll send a follow up email with the recording, uh, for everyone who joined. Um, and, uh, if we can share your emails as part of that, just as, of course, people can reach out.

55:09 Ani Boyadjian

Um, yes. Of course. Feel free to reach out.

55:11 Zack Ellis

Wonderful.

55:12 Ani Boyadjian

Happy to chat.

55:12 Zack Ellis

Well, thank. Thank you everyone.

55:14 Ani Boyadjian

Thank you so much.

55:16 Zack Ellis

Thanks, honey. Bye.

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About TheirStory

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