Colleagues:

Even if you have no direct connection with the Oral History Center at
LSU please consider taking a few minutes to write in support of their
program. With limited staff and budget they provide training through
workshops and loan equipment to students (including me as a graduate
student), researchers and the public as well as conducting their own
research (much of it relevant to historical archaeologists) and
maintaining the collections and access to them.

Contacts for officials at LSU and more information about the Center is
included in the forwarded message (below).

thanks, David

David T. Palmer, Ph.D.
Registered Professional Archaeologist (12440)

Southwest Louisiana Regional Archaeologist/ Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
P.O. Box 40198
Lafayette, LA 70504-0198
Phone/Fax: 337-482-5198
Email: [log in to unmask]


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jennifer M Abraham <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, May 28, 2010 at 10:55 AM
Subject: The Williams Center for Oral History needs your help!
To: Jennifer M Abraham <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Carolyn Ware <[log in to unmask]>, Janet Allured
<[log in to unmask]>, David Palmer <[log in to unmask]>,
"D'Oney, Daniel" <[log in to unmask]>, Michael J Mizell-Nelson
<[log in to unmask]>, Maida Owens <[log in to unmask]>


Dear Colleagues,

 As you may have heard, LSU is proposing to withdraw state funding
from the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History.  We are
approaching the midnight hour, but I feel optimistic that if the
chancellor and his advisors were made aware of how we work together
now or in the past with each of you to support your research, your
students’ educations, and future research, that there may be a
reconsideration of this decision.

If you feel that the Center’s work is valuable, would you please
consider writing a

 a brief letter or email to Chancellor Michael Martin and cc it to
Faculty Senate President, Kevin Cope?  You could either write him a
snail mail message or attach the letter in an email, whichever is
easiest for you. Their contact info is at the end of this email:


In it, you may want to express how the Williams Center for Oral
History provides or has provided valuable support to both faculty and
students as well as researchers.  In other words, what your
relationship with the Center, and what is your stake in this?  How
have we worked with you in the past?  What kind of partners have we
been?  Why do you or would you want to continue working with us in the
future? Why is the Center important to the university based on the
following criteria?  Your own stories and experiences would be
fantastic.  Below in red are some of the general reasons we would
given, had we had a chance prior to the announcement of the decision
to consider the Center for budget cuts.


• Significance with respect to the production of an educated, cultivated

Citizenry; creation of primary sources documenting under-documented
aspects of Louisiana history and culture—minorities;  everyday people;
war veterans; women’s history; training students and faculty in the
collection of oral histories; oral histories have been proven to
increase learning capacity of students and to foster community
identity among the communities being documented…


• Impact on Louisiana social, cultural, intellectual, environmental,
or economic well-being:  oral documentation is the ultimate
democratization of history; the creation of these types of primary
resources help provide multiple and diverse perspectives of the
previously recorded (and often one-sided) primary resources of the
time (e.g. Civil Right Movement);  the shared examination of a
community’s history helps foster community identities, especially in
times of crisis, like hurricanes, wetland loss, war, and oil spills.



• Strength or potential strength with respect to performance, national

reputation, and the meeting of national and local needs; the center
provides resources such as broadcast quality recorders as well as
professional consultation that promote the collection of oral
histories according to best practices outlined by the national Oral
History Association;  the Center also partners with other institutions
like the Library of Congress Veterans History Project;  the Center is
also active in the Oral History Association, providing leadership in
areas of new media, workshop training, and how to use oral histories
in disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita;



• Effect on, relevance to, or cooperation with other LSU programs

The Center works with multiple programs on campus to provide expertise
in the field of oral history and audio preservation; they also provide
international exposure by processing the oral histories and making
them available to researchers within LSU Libraries Special
Collections, and also on LOUISiana Digital Libraries; The Center
provides support for grants and other projects by providing training,
consultation, and housing/preservation of materials


• Current or potential student demand and effective use of teaching
resources, with special attention to placement after graduation and
lifelong learning; I’ll let you answer this one!

 Thank you for considering to help us.  We hope to continue to provide
valuable services to the LSU and Louisiana community.

 Sincerely,


Jennifer


Contact info for letters:



Chancellor Michael Martin

Office of the Chancellor
156 Thomas Boyd Hall • Baton Rouge, LA 70803
E-mail: [log in to unmask]



Prof. Kevin L. Cope, LSU Faculty Senate President, Department of
English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803

E-mail [log in to unmask]









Jennifer Abraham, Director

T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History

LSU Libraries Special Collections

Baton Rouge, LA  70803-3300

(phone) 225-578-7439 (fax) 225-578-4876

www.lib.lsu/special/williams