Written by Joan Hua and Justin Wadland
The UW Tacoma Library is pleased to announce the release of the UW Tacoma Oral History: Founding Stories digital collection. The collection currently comprises 37 oral history interviews with full transcripts and audio recordings. Browse the collection on this new website and explore the multiple pathways to interact with experiences, perspectives, and testimony shared by the faculty, staff, alumni, and civic leaders that contributed to the establishment and evolution of UW Tacoma.
We offer this collection in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the opening of the campus in Tacoma. We had hoped that the release of this collection would have coincided with celebratory events. Since the COVID-19 pandemic prevents all of us from meeting in person, the UW Tacoma Library is planning to host a virtual reception in the fall to bring the campus community together to recognize the oral history participants. More details will be shared on here and through other campus communications as this event takes shape.
New milestone of an ongoing project
This work is the culmination of a second, much more ambitious phase of a project that began in 2017. Founding Stories is a digital oral history project that aims to gather and share experiences of those who contributed to the founding and development of the UW Tacoma campus and community. Here are a few representative interviews now available:
- Claudia Gorbman is professor emerita of film studies at the University of Washington Tacoma. She was one of the founding faculty of Liberal Studies, now the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences. See the Claudia Gorbman interview.
- Chana Lawson is an alumna and the new Assistant Director of Alumni Relations & Annual Giving at UW Tacoma. She discusses her involvement in the Black Student Union and organizing the inaugural MLK Unity Breakfast in her oral history interview.
- Steve Smith began his time at UW Tacoma as the Director of Admissions, Student Affairs, and Community Relations when it first opened in the fall of 1990. See the Steve Smith interview, in which he recounts stories about early students, his evolving role as an administrator, and connections with the local community.
- Greg Tanbara is a Tacoma native who has intersected with various key players during the establishment of UW Tacoma through his work for the city and county. In his oral history interview, he also discusses the former Japanese Language School building that his family owned until it was purchased by the university and its significance.
We were able to accomplish this work thanks to a pledge of support from Rod Hagenbuch and funds from UW Tacoma that enabled the Library to hire Joan Hua to work full-time as an Oral History Project Manager on the project for approximately 10 months to complete this phase of the project. During this time, Joan oversaw all aspects of the project, from conducting interviews, designing and developing the online collection, coordinating the processing of interviews, and conceptualizing and creating the online site. During all this work, she worked closely with collaborators on this project: Justin Wadland, Interim Director of the Library, and Interim Associate Dean, UW Libraries, and Charles Williams, Professor of Political Science, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.
As a result, the collection amounts to 772 pages of transcript, the equivalent of 49 hours and 18 minutes of audio recording, to date. Each oral history has generated on average two or three gigabytes of raw data, which are being archived and preserved with the help of the UW Libraries digital preservation infrastructure.
The unforeseen challenges of COVID-19 have caused disruptions to many aspects of our work, and the UW Tacoma Oral History project is no exception. We have had to limit the number of interviews we could conduct and shorten the project duration due to funding changes. With that in mind, Joan completed her work on the project on July 31, 2020, and is nevertheless able to present the collection on this new collection site.
As the campus responds and changes to the many forces of this historic moment, we recognize that the story of UW Tacoma is ongoing and continues to evolve, even as we release this project. For the time being, the Library will be devoting most of its staff time and resources to preparing for the unprecedented Fall Quarter that is approaching, and in the year ahead, we intend to begin conversations about planning for future phases of this project.
Unique features of the website
The collection site is built on CollectionBuilder and provides a gateway into the collection housed at UW Libraries Digital Collections. The design of the site prioritizes flexible pathways of discovery and openness in sharing oral histories as data. Joan would like to especially thank Devin Becker and colleagues at the University of Idaho Digital Initiatives for providing support and guidance on the development of this site.
We invite you to explore the collection and listen to oral histories. You may browse the collection by the name of interviewee, but it also offers a few other unique pathways into the collection and interviews:
- The Browse Subjects function compiles tagged keywords into a word cloud, providing an at-a-glance view of common topics. All words link to a corresponding collection search.
- The Tree Map provides a gateway into various themes surfaced in the oral history collection. It visualizes a dynamic “table of content,” offering exploration of the collection beyond strict categories and individual names.
- A sample visualization of an interview transcript to demonstrate the potential of the oral history collection as data. The transcript visualization contains color-coded topics discussed.
This project leverages both tools and resources available from the UW Libraries and represents a significant contribution to digital scholarship in approach to workflow, creativity, and collaboration across and within institutions. If you have any questions about this project, please contact Justin Wadland.
