This grant is focusing on commercial fishing but the skills to be learned in the oral history workshops can be applied to any subject.

Connie Mason will be leading the "Community Historians" training sessions which will include two half-day workshops ( Saturday -- Jan 13 and Jan 27) to give folks in the community the opportunity to learn the basic skills of interviewing and collecting oral histories.

Workshops are free but attendees will need to attend both sessions. All reading materials will be provided. In exchange, we ask that each participant bring back to the museum at least one completed interview for the archive relating to commercial fishing. We hope that everyone will want to contribute more to our collection in the months and years to come as we have identified more than 50 individuals needing to be interviewed as part of the NOAA grant / fisheries-related project. We have other subjects to be researched, including women's roles, boat building, waterfowling traditions, schools, family histories and other aspects of local history.

The course will include how to operate museum-quality recording equipment and transcribing do's and don'ts, but will concentrate on developing effective questions and listening skills that will bring out the best possible information in the interview.

"We are fortunate to have Connie who has decades of interviewing experiences and a comprehensive knowledge of local history to lead this training..." Pam Morris - Community Resources Coordinator

Barbara Blake will be part of the project in helping outline the fisheries-related issues to be included in the interviews. She will be conducting interviews along with the community historians and together will bring together more than 30 new interviews from fishermen and their families. Dr. Blake has already begun inventorying the fisheries-related interviews already on file at regional archives such as UNC-CH, ECU, UNCW, as well as agencies such as the Division of Marine Fisheries, the National Park Service and other fisheries-related archives. Transcriptions of all new and archived interviews will be part of this project as well, with a goal of maybe 40-50 ready-to-read interviews on fisheries-related topics.

The long-term uses for this work will include Core Sound's permanent exhibits, publications, educational programs, materials for
partner-documentaries and research for writers and historians.

"This is work that we have been wanting to concentrate on for years. Now with NOAA's help, we can bring together all that has been done and much of what needs to be done to archive and make public this important piece of Down East Carteret County's history for the future." KA

REGISTER NOW! Space is limited. Call the Museum at 728-1500 to register!