Opportunities From: Bellevue College

Hello Bellevue College!   Eastside Heritage Center has launched a contemporary oral history endeavor called "The Living History Project." Amazon sponsored the early building blocks of this, and we were able to purchase some equipment, etc.; Now we're looking ahead to conducting these oral histories ("interviews") with folks on the Eastside this year. I feel that you, your classmates, etc. all might fall under our widely-cast net. We're officially looking for folks of all ages, backgrounds, professions, etc. who have a direct connection to the Eastside. This could be someone whose family has lived here for generations, but also those who moved here in the last few decades, too. It's intended to capture a snapshot of the Eastside today.    The goal for the next few months is to conduct short ~15-minute audio interviews, and then compile these into a format that would allow for retention internally, but also smaller clips to be put out into the community (including the potential for our social media accounts.) The long-term goal would be to get these same folks back in to conduct a longer oral history, around an hour, to flesh out this project a bit more.    Do you want to participate? We'd love to talk with you. In terms of time commitment, we'd reserve an hour window to conduct the actual interview in Bellevue at our administrative headquarters. There would be a release document to fill out, and we'd also ask for several photos (depending on the conversation had.) Afterwards we would edit the file to make it more clear and concise, and transcribe the content. You'd review and we'd communicate a bit regarding that. All in, likely   Please email me if this sounds like something you would like to be a part of! And of course if you have any questions. Director@EastsideHeritageCenter.org   https://eastsideheritagecenter.org/living-history 

The Eastside Heritage Center in partnership with the City of Bellevue has been documenting and preserving the oral histories of the citizens of Bellevue for decades in order to preserve our unique local history. The bulk of our collection is recorded on audio tapes. As audio cassettes are becoming obsolete and degrading to the point of being unable to be played, we are currently focusing on converting our collection to digital files for easy exploration by researchers. Go to https://www.eastsideheritagecenter.org/ to learn more about our organization.

 

There are to opportunities to be involved with our Oral History projects. One is in-person and the other is in-person or remote. 

 

Oral History Tape Digitization – Digitizing physical cassette tapes by converting the recordings to digital audio file. Requires training with cassette device. Work done in-person at McDowell House. (Can be paired with transcription.) Oral History Transcription Volunteers - For many years the EHC has been involved in a series of oral history projects that worked to preserve the personal histories of hundreds of people on the Eastside. Eastside Heritage Center is seeking help with transcribing these Oral Histories. This volunteering can be done remotely.

 

This volunteer position is a good introduction for students looking to learn about museum work, archives and collections, and local history. Hours are flexible and we are open to hosting students for more or less of the listed time. Volunteers will need:

 

Access to a computer Attention to detail Excellent written English-language skills Familiarity with Microsoft Office or other Word Processing software