WashU Libraries have a variety of oral history collections with various focuses. The circumstances around the collections, while they are different, offer lessons on the sustainability of oral history creation and preservation at WashU. Included will be a brief overview of the history of the oral history collections, focusing in particular on the various collaborations, processes, and methods that resulted in the collections. Discussion will cover current processes and methods to create, preserve, and make accessible past and future oral histories, including efforts at platform migration, metadata standardization, and the use of AI transcription tools. There will be an overview of tools, resources, and subject guides that WashU Libraries makes available for students, faculty, and community members who wish to create oral histories. And there will be a discussion of the innovative use of oral histories for exhibitions and programming.
