On the challenges presented to oral history recording by COVID-19 and DRI’s revised workflows.
By Bláithín Ní Chatháin and Anja Mahler.
COVID-19 has presented a number of challenges for the Digital Repository of Ireland team over the past two months, as we have adapted to working from home full time. In this blog post, our Oral Historian Bláithín Ní Chatháin and Digital Archivist Anja Mahler outline the particular adjustments that they have had to make to ensure the success of The Atlantic Philanthropies Archive Project – especially in the area of oral history recording.
Following a short comparison of oral histories before and during this pandemic, the authors present a link to their revised oral history procedures, newly ingested into the DRI repository. These have been specially devised to suit the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, and to keep both interviewees and interviewers safe at home. We hope that these guidelines will be useful to others who are adapting their workflows for this difficult situation.
What is The Atlantic Philanthropies Archive Project?
DRI has embarked on a three-year project that seeks to document the work of The Atlantic Philanthropies on the island of Ireland. Over a period of 30 years, The Atlantic Philanthropies invested €1.6 billion on the island of Ireland to advance higher education, human rights, further the peace process in Northern Ireland, and improve services and policies for young people and older adults. The impact of the investment in Ireland has been described as vast and at times transformational. DRI provides a window into how change was amplified by The Atlantic Philanthropies by curating a selection of documentation relating to its grant-making activities.
What type of data is being collected?
DRI will draw materials the from grant-making records of The Atlantic Philanthropies’ archive housed at Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in Ithaca, New York. Here, records that document the entire life cycle of grants, such as proposals, final reports, and printed ephemera, exist in either digital or hardcopy format. In addition to collecting grant documentation, DRI will also create oral histories that relate to the chosen grants and records. The team is also commissioning a number of essays that provide insights and experiences from people who have been involved in, researched, or studied Atlantic-funded projects.
How will the data be accessed and retrieved?
All records for this collection will be accessible on DRI. Additionally, DRI will use Spotlight, an open source virtual exhibition platform tool developed by Stanford University, to create a distinct exhibition of the collections.
Who works on the project?
Bláithín Ní Chatháin, Oral Historian, The Atlantic Philanthropies Archives Project
Bláithín’s role is to curate historical context for the grantees that are selected for inclusion in the Atlantic Philanthropies Archive Project, which spans a period of thirty years. From that context, she identifies the individuals that she will collect oral histories from. Her focus is on researching documents, and recording experiences and stories, from people across the island of Ireland who were involved in Atlantic projects.
Anja Mahler, Digital Archivist, The Atlantic Philanthropies Archives Project
As a Digital Archivist, Anja’s part in The Atlantic Philanthropies Archive Project is to develop guidelines, collection structures, ingest schedules and metadata policies for the project, as well as the hands-on creation of metadata and ingestion of digital objects into the DRI.
Introduction to oral histories before and during the Covid-19 pandemic (by Bláithín Ní Chatháin)
The oral history methodology of the Atlantic Archives digital collection is strongly rooted in historical documentation. In order to find engaging oral history interviewees, a careful historical appraisal has been undertaken of hundreds of documents relating to Atlantic-supported grantees in the areas of Education, Communities and Human Rights. From them, a wide variety of projects are being selected, which we hope will provide long-term historical perspectives of community and societal change in Ireland.
Alongside this desk-based research, one of the main activities before COVID-19 was a good number of outreach meetings and interviews with various NGOs and Atlantic-funded organisations across the island of Ireland. It is only when you visit an organisation and meet the people they work with that you can really gain a deeper insight into the trojan work that is being done by community groups in improving the lives of vulnerable and marginalised groups and individuals.
(Debbie Reynolds, Dolphin House Community Development worker, interviewed by Bláithín Ní Chatháin in December 2019)
It is hard to believe now how quickly Brexit ceased to be at the front of everyone’s minds and in the news headlines. When I commenced working on The Atlantic Philanthropies Archive project last year, the country was consumed with efforts to avoid the drastic economic and political implications of a hard Brexit on the island of Ireland. I quickly realised that, as one third of the Atlantic Philanthropies funded projects in the archive were Northern Irish, the Peace and Reconciliation, Community and Education projects in the North needed to be prioritised in my schedule. I was honoured to meet, have engaging conversations with, and record interviews with legendary peace and community workers and academics from Carrickfergus to Dungannon and Belfast, Dublin, Derry and Kilkenny. However, my wings have been clipped since March and I had to replace my car battery recently, as it adjusts to going no further than 20km a month!
Recording Atlantic’s impact in Communities and Education was in progress in 2020 when COVID-19 struck, and since then interviewing has moved online. This has involved adapting to using video conferencing and phone instead of travelling to meet people in person. Numerous remote sound and video tests were carried out between Anja and me to find a suitable way to continue our work to the highest standards of digital preservation while recording by phone or over Zoom using a H5 wav digital recorder – which, confusingly, is also called a Zoom recorder. My artist brother kindly made me a specially-designed wooden phone holder with velcro straps and an attachment for a tripod, which allows me to record hands free! A more detailed description of the technical aspects of recording remotely can be found in our ‘Revised Oral History Recording Procedures‘.
Recording oral histories remotely is challenging for everyone and is only possible only due to the goodwill being shown to me by the various Atlantic-supported organisations and hardworking individuals in universities, industries and NGOs. Groups like Third Age Ireland, Barnardos, the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland, the Irish Refugee Council and Disability Action Northern Ireland now, more than ever, need support to continue their wonderful work in helping disadvantaged or vulnerable communities to get through this difficult time in our history.
It is very heartening to see Irish philanthropists and donors rising to the COVID-19 challenge in recent weeks to support both NGOs and the Irish government, who can’t do it alone. The Ireland Funds, U2, Guinness, Websummit, Intel, and Google are among the many who have contributed to purchasing PPE, setting up social innovation funds, and aiding NGOs in their work among the elderly and vulnerable communities.
As the founder of Atlantic Philanthropists Chuck Feeney once said, ‘you’ll never run out of people you can help’.
‘Is ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine’. May you all stay safe and well.
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Would you like to take a look at The Atlantic Philanthropies Archive Project’s Revised Oral History Recording Procedures? These procedures have been specially devised to suit the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, and to keep both interviewees and interviewers safe at home. If so, head over to the repository at: https://doi.org/10.7486/DRI.kh04tb770
(main image: Zoom video conferencing software with Zoom H5 audio recorder)
