More from MLA/DLA Annual - Documenting the Lives of Veterans

MLA/DLA Annual Conference

May 6-8, 2015

Documenting the Lives of Maryland Veterans: How to Provide Access

Mary Mannix - Maryland Room Manager, Frederick County Public Libraries, Melissa VanSchaick and
Kathryn Ryberg - Practicum Students, Jill Craig - Digitization Librarian, Western MD Regional Library

The librarians of Western Maryland presented nontraditional resources to use with researchers. 1) Local smaller newspapers published information about local people. The articles are much more detailed than national newspapers. 2) Scrapbooks as a resource. These are archival (usually) and held by local libraries or genealogical societies. 3) Local Oral History Projects: The Oral history project in Western Maryland has been partnered with Library of Congress’s Veterans history project. For the oral history project, interviews were recorded on DVD. The information in the DVDs needed to be more ‘discoverable’. 

The FCPL’s interns created subject rich summaries of each interview (Full transcripts would take too long to create). The summaries in turn were added to the catalog with an original cataloging record. Subject headings (650 fields) and full text searching will make it easier for researchers to find information by name and by topic. The oral histories included local ‘Rosie the Riverter’ as well. Women working in the Fairchild plant in Hagerstown were interviewed for an oral history project in 2004. The interviews, photographs and memorabilia are available at Western Maryland’s Historical Library (WHILBR).   Excellent presentation and very useful information.

Sarah Kuperman

Collection Management