National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Conference Resources

Available Online: 35,000+ Educational Video and Audio Resources and Primary Sources

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) recently met with K-12 educators, administrators, and teachers-in-training at the annual National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Conference, a melding of the minds to help advocate and build capacity for high-quality social studies through leadership, services, and support.

As a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, the AAPB provides an online archive, open and available to the public, of historic public radio and television programs from across the nation, spanning public broadcasting’s 70+ year history. From local and regional to national productions, the AAPB allows the public to access 36,000 (and growing) programs and original materials, from local news and documentaries to talk shows and raw interviews, and more all available at americanarchive.org!

To learn more about the AAPB, watch this informational video with example clips at https://vimeo.com/108272934.

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For easier access and navigation, below is a deeper dive into AAPB’s resources:

The AAPB provides online access to users anywhere in the United States with a wide range of historic public television and radio programs that were submitted for digitization by more than 120 stations and archives from across the country. More than 36,000 programs are available online for research, educational and informational purposes, spanning public broadcasting’s 70+ year history. The entire collection is available for research on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.

*Start with AAPB’s Road Trip Special Collection at http://americanarchive.org/special_collections/aapb-road-trip!

Check out our participating organizations at http://americanarchive.org/participating-orgs.

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Because of the geographical breadth of the material, students can use the collection to help uncover ways that national historical events played out on the local scene. The long chronological reach from the late 1940s to the present provides researchers with previously inaccessible primary source material to document change over time.

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Some notable collections are featured on the Special Collections page with finding aids that include information such as the scope and content of the collection, provenance and background information about its creator and source, recommended search strategies, and related resources. Collections include:

Raw interviews –

1964 (American Experience)
The Abolitionists (American Experience)
Jubilee Singers (American Experience)
Freedom Riders (American Experience)
The Murder of Emmett Till (American Experience)
Reconstruction (American Experience)
Africans in America (WGBH)

American Masters (WNET)
Ken Burn’s The Civil War (American Documentaries, Inc.)

Early educational broadcasting –

National Association of Educational Broadcasters Programs
National Educational Television Collection

Locally and nationally distributed programs and documentaries –

Center for Asian American Media
Firing Line
Georgia Gazette (GPB)
Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) News and Cultural Programming
PBS NewsHour
Say Brother (WGBH)
Vision Maker Media Documentaries
Woman (WNED)

Direct link to our Special Collections: http://americanarchive.org/special_collections

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AAPB staff and guest curators create exhibits of selected programs and recordings that focus on themes, topics, and events of cultural and historical significance. Primary and secondary sources contextualize a diversity of perspectives concerning the exhibit’s focus and as a result, AAPB exhibits often illuminate how public broadcasting stations and producers have covered topics such as the Watergate hearings, climate change, protesting in America, civil rights, and more!

Direct link to our Curated Exhibits: http://americanarchive.org/exhibits

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Contact Ryn Marchese, AAPB’s Engagement and Use Manager, to inquire about bringing these materials into your classroom: ryn_marchese@wgbh.org!

And feel free to share our resource with your local school, public and academic librarians! We’ve created a AAPB Library Communications Kit with details on how to describe the AAPB on website/resource guides and embed our player and harvest metadata from our catalog. We’ve also included a link to our webinar with the Boston Library Consortium on the “Accessibility of AAPB in Academic Libraries,” most of which will be applicable to the public librarian community.

For information about the AAPB that you can print for your classroom, email to fellow teachers, or post about online, feel free to use our Informational Flyer!

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Most recommended content during NCSS?

Based on our conversations with teachers, below are a few programs we most recommended during the conference!

1. PBS NewsHour Special Collection – The PBS NewsHour Collection includes more than 8,000 episodes of PBS NewsHour’s predecessor programs from October 1975 to December 2007 covering local and national conversations.
2. “Gavel-to-Gavel”: The Watergate Scandal and Public Television Curated Exhibit – Here you will find guides to each episode of the public hearings that were digitized, links to transcripts, and highlights to peruse. To help identify people in the videos, the Cast of Characters page includes photos and titles for the important figures in the hearings. The Watergate Scandal, 1972-1974 page gives an explanation of the who, what, when, where, and why of Watergate to help guide you through the coverage. If you would like a more in depth essay on the significant role that Watergate played in the history of public broadcasting, please click on the Watergate and Public Broadcasting link.
3. Field Trip Series from Main Public Broadcasting – Field Trip is a series of short educational documentaries that explore Maine’s history, culture, and agriculture from fish hatcheries to how low/high tides work — there’s so much to explore!
4. Local Content – Search our participating stations for local content!

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The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation in Boston that preserves and makes accessible significant public radio and television programs before they are lost to posterity. The AAPB collection includes more than 50,000 recorded hours comprising over 90,000 digitized and born-digital programs, and original materials dating back to the late 1940s, and is growing!

Written by Ryn Marchese, AAPB Engagement and Use Manager

@amarchivepub

Remembering George H.W. Bush through Public Broadcasting

Today the nation lays to rest George Herbert Walker Bush, America’s 41st president who lived a long life dedicated to public service until his death at the age of 94. The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is honored to have preserved for modern audiences several historic public television and radio programs featuring or discussing President Bush, providing the American public the opportunity to learn more about his remarkable career in moving images and sound.

Below is a curated selection of programs with, or related to, George H.W. Bush beginning with his role as CIA Director, then on to his presidential campaigns, moderated debates, and the local reactions to his impact as a leading politician. All programs are available online thanks to the listed contributing stations.

1976

The CIA and the Intelligence Community from the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University

In this episode of Commonwealth Club of California, George H.W. Bush discussed the responsibilities of the director of central intelligence (DCI), the role of the CIA, and the central importance of national security. He also talked about secrecy, accountability, and having faith in the strength and effectiveness of our democratic institutions.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_514-2j6833np4c

1977

George Bush in Boston from 10 O’Clock News

As a former CIA director, George H. W. Bush, spoke on national security and foreign affairs. In regards to relations with South American countries, Bush explained his belief that one should not use 1977 morals to pass judgment on events that happened in the past. He denied allegations that the CIA used the African Swine Fever Virus in Cuba to “destabilize”. Also denied that he ever authorized any use of chemical or biological warfare agents. He touched briefly on his potential candidacy for presidency.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-5t3fx73z3d

1979

– George Bush Profile; George Bush for President from The MacNeil/Lehrer Report

The main topic of this episode was George H.W. Bush’s candidacy for president of the United States. The guests included Bush’s three campaign leaders Peter Teeley, David Keene, and James Baker, as well as George H.W. Bush.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_507-db7vm43k4v

– Presidential Hopeful George H.W. Bush from Iowa Public Television

Iowa Press interviewed George H.W. Bush, a relatively unknown candidiate at the time and his strategy to leverage Iowa toward his party.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_37-08hdrb0b/track?search_id=191701

1980

Debates with Six Republican Presidencial Candidates from Iowa Public Television

This presidential debate recorded by Iowa Public Television included panelists Rep. Phil Crane Of Illinois, Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker Of Tenn., John Connally Of Texas, Sen. Robert Dole Of Kansas, George H.W. Bush Of Texas, and Rep. John Anderson of Illinois.

Part 1 direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_37-83kwhj7b

Part 2 direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_37-569325t0

1984

Debate between Vice President George Bush and Geraldine Ferraro produced by The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, contributed by Iowa Public Television

 

This debate focused on Vice President Bush and vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro on foreign and domestic affairs.

Part 1 direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_37-72b8h3np

Part 2 direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_37-19f4qw2s

1988

– The Bush Record from The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

In the latter half of this episode, The MacNeil Lehrer NewsHour covered the political record of the new republican presidential nominee, George H.W. Bush.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_507-862b85443p

 

– A Firing Line Debate: Resolved: That George Bush and the Republican Party Are Better Able to Run the Country for the Next Four Years Than Michael Dukakis and the Democratic Party from Firing Line with William F. Buckley

The television series Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. was a venue for debate and discussion on political, social, and philosophical issues with experts of the day. In this episode, Buckley hosted a panel to discuss Bush’s impact as president, over that of his opponent’s, Michael Dukakis.

Direct Link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_514-4f1mg7gh5j

– Andrew Young and NAACP members criticize Bush from 10 O’Clock News

In this episode of WGBH’s 10 O’Clock News, Deborah Wang noted that many members of the Legal Defense Fund were skeptical of President George Bush’s commitment to civil rights; she added that civil rights advocates were worried about Bush making conservative appointments to the judiciary. Wang reported that there would be several openings in lower courts and a possible opening on the Supreme Court during Bush’s term in office.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_15-9ks6j45g

1989 – Inauguration Year

– The Week of the the 41st Presidencial Inauguration from NewsHour Productions

In this episode, essayist Roger Rosenblatt discussed George H.W. Bush’s inauguration and his role in Civil Rights.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_507-j678s4kf08

*Start at timecode 49:20

– What the Presidency Means for Business from Maryland Public Television

From the Wall Street Week series, this episode compared the monetary impact of Ronald Reagan’s presidency verses Bush’s. Guests included Reagan’s budget chief, a top Wall Street money man, and a leading invester of Europe.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_394-7957421w

1992

Speaking for Bush from Maryland Public Television

From this episode of Wall Street Week, Lynn M. Martin, United States Secretary of Labor under President George H.W. Bush, spoke on President Bush’s economic policies.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_394-28nck2pq

 

Written by Ryn Marchese, AAPB Engagement and Use Manager

AAPB Launches Transcribe to Digitize Challenge with George Blood!

Earlier this year, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) launched FIX IT+, a crowdsourcing tool that invites the public to help improve the searchability of over 50,000 hours of historic public television and radio programming. Now, with the generous support of George Blood, a digitization service provider, the AAPB is launching the Transcribe to Digitize Challenge.  The challenge is simple: George Blood will digitize another tape (for free!) for every transcript that is corrected.

So now, public media fans – visit fixitplus.americanarchive.org, filter content by YOUR station, and #transcribetodigitize!

 

Find YOUR local AAPB participating organization here: http://americanarchive.org/participating-orgs. If that station is a participant in this challenge, their transcripts will appear in the filtered search.

 

AAPB has digitized and preserved more than 50,000 hours of public television and radio programming created by stations and producers across the United States. This unique historic material, created as early as the 1940s and often lacking closed captioning, represents our shared and diverse cultural heritage. Yet it is not highly discoverable to researchers, educators, students, lifelong learners, journalists and the public because it lacks robust descriptive information, or “metadata.”.

With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the AAPB has made strides at making the collection more discoverable by creating speech-to-text transcripts of the audio and video in the collection. These transcripts can be used to improve accessibility of the collection through the addition of new keywords and by exposing the time-stamped transcript alongside the media player on the AAPB website. However, these computer-generated transcripts lack accuracy, and the AAPB is seeking the help of the public to correct them!

Transcribe to Digitize Challenge Details

For the Transcribe to Digitize Challenge, a minimum of 20 transcripts must be corrected for a station to meet the challenge, and George Blood will then provide free digitization for 20 tapes selected by that station. Up to 100 transcripts can be corrected for 100 tapes to be digitized per station. The digitized materials will be delivered back to each station, and a copy will also go to the AAPB for long-term preservation at the Library of Congress and access through the AAPB website!

To help your station reach its goal, visit fixitplus.americanarchive.org and start transcribing!

May the challenge begin!

If your organization is a participant in AAPB and wants to opt in, email Casey Davis Kaufman at casey_davis-kaufman@wgbh.org.

 

Eric Saxon, Public Broadcasting Fellow at KOPN

KOPN’s transmitter, located east of Columbia, MO

Greetings gentle reader, I’m Eric Saxon, a Masters of Information and Library Science student specializing in archives at the University of Missouri – Columbia, and part of the second cohort of the Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship (PBPF). This summer, I embarked on a deep tape diving expedition at the radio station, KOPN.

KOPN 89.5 FM, community radio from Columbia, Missouri, broadcasts to antennas throughout the central part of the state and via online at kopn.org. KOPN has transmitted information and music since 1973 AD. As part of the PBPF mission to record local histories across the nation, I set out to discover Columbia and KOPN as it existed in the first twenty or so years of the station, through a media format heretofore unfamiliar to me, the ¼ in. audio tape reel.

The idea was to give these audio reels new life through digital preservation, and, subsequently, new access points to the history of community radio in Columbia, MO in the era of the ¼ in. magnetic tape.

A ¼ in. magnetic audio tape reel

What I ended up recording is only a small piece of this history, but the audible trace there tells a story of a community radio station being born out of the progressive ethos of the 1960s, open to and actively exploring all available ideas during the 1970s, and incompletely mutating into new wave ideals of the 1980s. During the era of the magnetic tape, KOPN filled a void in mid-Missouri left by mainstream broadcast radio and television, serving across an intersection of race, class, gender, style, sexuality, attitude, and musical preference.

The collection is particularly strong in broadcasts that represent feminist discourse and practice of the time, and my predecessor (Rebecca Benson, PBPF Spring 2018 Fellow) had already begun work that focused on feminist community radio. Having inherited her excellent start to the project, I built upon the theme and expanded it to include live music broadcasts and a wide range of programming, all under the umbrella of feminist community radio.

To convey an idea of this breadth, some titles of the audio broadcasts I digitized include Betty Friedan in Columbia (1973); Don Cooper Live at KOPN (1973); Consciousness Across the Void (1973); Angela Davis in Columbia (1974); Political Gayness (1974); National Women’s Music Festival (1975); The End of “Alternative Radio” on WGTB (1976); Off Our Backs (1976); The Fabulish Winotones Live (1977); Numerology (1978); The Booty Band: Demo Tape (1978); Reasonably Polite New Wave (1981); Program on Lesbian Separatism (1981); DuChamp Live at the Blue Note (1981); Bella Azbug at MU (1984); Gloria Kaufman, “The Politics of Humor: A Feminist View” (1992);  City Council Meetings; and discussions by the Women’s Health Collective.

I transferred only a few reels from the 1990s to a digital format, and none from the 2000s. (By that time, the station had switched to digital machines.) However, a quick listen to KOPN today will tell you that the community values and open radio format there in the beginning continue to be the guiding forces of the station.

Kansas City new wave band, DuChamp. Handmade collage on tape reel box.

The digitization process not only transferred content but also often recorded the unique physical characteristics of the tape and its interaction with the reel-to-reel tape machines, which, in the University of Missouri – Columbia KOPN Digitization Station’s case, are the Studer A807 (mono) and the Studer B67 (stereo). These were hooked up to a PC and a Mac desktop computer, respectively, where both utilized the audio editing software, Audacity. I could have removed some tape hiss, a sizzle of magnetic particles here and there, and other imperfections, but I left in all but the most egregious content obfuscators, not only to digitize as much as possible in the time allotted, but also as an aesthetic choice and to preserve the unique qualities of the tape medium itself.

The Studer A807

Emancipating the tape reels from their media-specific obscurity required multiple other steps, with some reels needing more TLC and resuscitation than others. After vigilant cleaning of the machines between reels, this process might entail repairing splices that popped off during the recording process, adding leader tape to the heads and tails of reels, re-housing tapes with broken parts, periodic demagnetizing of the tape machines, untangling and re-spooling tape that had become curled and twisted, and baking/dehydrating tapes exhibiting “sticky-shed syndrome” where deteriorating binder material becomes unfixed in the tape path and gums up the machine’s moving parts. In addition to the more physical aspects of the project, there was also record creation for each reel, inventory production, metadata researched and added, checksum generation, audio file conversion, and ingest into the mothership servers at WGBH.

Although I worked independently, at every stage I had a network of experts and mentors to turn to when encountering an obstacle, from the immersion week of audiovisual preservation training in Boston to the final handoff of the files. Thanks go out to the amazing folks at WGBH and all involved in immersion week, including George Blood and Jackie Jay for introducing me to legacy A/V equipment, all my fellow Fellows, host mentor Jackie Casteel and everyone at KOPN, faculty mentor Dr. Sarah Buchanan and the scholars at MU’s Allen Institute, local mentor Jim Hone, and every one else involved in this far-reaching project.

Going forward, I’m excited to bring forth more untold and seldom heard stories from their various limbos, utilizing what I learned as a PBPF fellow to help make a more complete historical record that is inclusive of the entire spectrum of human experience.

Minimal audio preservation setup: computer, reel-to-reel tape machine, human

Written by Eric Saxon, PBPF Summer 2018 Cohort

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About PBPF

The Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship (PBPF), funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, supports ten graduate student fellows at University of North Carolina, San Jose State University, Clayton State University, University of Missouri, and University of Oklahoma in digitizing at-risk materials at public media organizations around the country. Host sites include the Center for Asian American Media, Georgia Public Broadcasting, WUNC, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, and KOPN Community Radio. Contents digitized by the fellows will be preserved in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. The grant also supports participating universities in developing long-term programs around audiovisual preservation and ongoing partnerships with their local public media stations.

For more updates on the Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship project, follow the project at pbpf.americanarchive.org and on Twitter at #aapbpf, and come back in a few months to check out the results of their work.

 

World Teachers’ Day 2018

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World Teachers’ Day is held annually on October 5th to commemorate the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. This Recommendation sets benchmarks regarding the rights and responsibilities of teachers and standards for their initial preparation and further education, recruitment, employment, and teaching and learning conditions.

As World Teachers’ Day aims to focus on appreciating, evaluating, and improving the educators of the world, public broadcasting has brought these concerns to the public for further consideration. Here is a brief selection of clips to recognize the ambition of teachers, as well as public broadcasting’s programming as a primary and secondary resource.

Educational Programs Available Online

National Educational Television Special Collection (1952-1972)

The National Educational Television (NET) Collection consists of more than 10,000 television programs from non-commercial TV stations and producers from 1952-1972 on public affairs, social issues, arts, culture, the humanities, science, and education. The collection includes public affairs documentaries and discussions covering the black freedom struggle, the Vietnam War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and issues such as poverty, student activism, radicalism, privacy, the environment, the elderly, and welfare. The programs in this collection were created for television broadcast, as well as classroom and adult educational uses.

Search the collection: http://americanarchive.org/special_collections/net-catalog

School Desegregation from WGBH’s Say Brother Series (1974)

This program focuses on school desegregation and the quality of education in Boston 1974. Discussion includes students, parents, and community activists held within Jeremiah E. Burke High School. First program of the 1974 season.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog?q=cpb-aacip%2F15-9gq6r236&utf8=%E2%9C%93&f%5Baccess_types%5D%5B%5D=online

Sex Bias in Education from WNED’s Women Series (1974)

 

 

This episode features a conversation with Judy Wenning and Phyllis AlRoy. Wenning was the former President of NY N.O.W and Coordinator of National NOW Women and Sports Task Force. She was a teacher and worked as a feminist therapist at NY City College and in private practice. AlRoy was a member of “Women on Words and Images,” a feminist consulting firm in Princeton, New Jersey, and is the co-author of “Dick and Jane As Victims.”

Direct Link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_81-37hqc39r

Denver Public School Prime Time Project from Rocky Mountain PBS (1981)

This show is from a weekly series to create public awareness of the educational opportunities in the Denver Public Schools and to encourage the cooperative efforts of home and community to achieve excellence in education.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_52-91fj7068

Front Street Weekly: Public vs Private Schooling from Oregon Public Broadcasting (1984)

In the choice between private and public, this episode focuses on why Oregon parents are choosing private over public school for their children in 1984.

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_153-07gqnmcc

Arkansas School for the Deaf from Arkansas Educational TV Network (1994)

This documentary describes the courses and programs at the Arkansas School for the Deaf. The documentary is composed of interviews with school administrators and teachers, along with footage and photographs of students in classrooms, around campus, and at special events. Transcript included!

Direct link: http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_111-4298sn90

Primary and Secondary Resources in the Archive

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) contains more than 50,000 items of digitized public broadcasting programs and original materials. Over 35,000 items of these programs are available online and the importance of these news casts, raw interviews, documentaries, radio shows etc. serve as primary and secondary sources to American history, both on the local and national level.

Below is AAPB’s Informational Flyer available for download. This flyer gives an overview of the AAPB, its collection, and accessibility to students and teachers.

With over 35,000 items of public radio and television programs from 120 particiation stations, AAPB’s collection captures historical moments across chronological and geographic spectrums. The AAPB staff and guest researchers have curated Exhibits that include coverage of the Watergate hearing, civil rights movements, climate change, and more!

The AAPB has also organized Special Collections that highlight valuable series within collections. These include raw interviews from Eyes on the Prize, Ken Burns’ Civil War Series, and American Expereience documentaries. Often times, only minutes of these interviews make it into the final cut of programs. On the AAPB, the public has access to interviews from start to finish. For example, from the Eyes on the Prize Special Collection, the public can watch Rosa Parks give her account of history between the production crew’s cues and director’s coaching off-screen.

We hope you enjoy and can make use of these resources!

AAPB Informational Flyer

The AAPB Informational Flyer is available for download and contains an overview of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, its collection, and accessibility in the classroom. Feel free to share with students, teachers, and colleagues!

Download here: AAPB_Informational_Flyer.pdf

Curated Exhibits

American Archive of Public Broadcasting staff and guest curators have created exhibits of selected recordings that focus on themes, topics, and events of cultural and historical significance. In these exhibits, curators contextualize digitized primary and secondary source public television and radio materials. Each curated set of selected recordings present a diversity of perspectives concerning the exhibit’s focus. As a result, AAPB exhibits often illuminate how public broadcasting stations and producers have covered the exhibit’s theme.

Special Collections

Some notable collections are featured here in Special Collections. Each Special Collection finding aid provides detailed information about the content, such as its creator, recommended search strategies, and related resources. These are unedited interviews from programs that often only include minutes of the original interviews.

Written by Ryn Marchese, AAPB Engagement and Use Manager

American Archive of Public Broadcasting October 2018 Newsletter

 

Mississippi Legends and Luminaries

The collection of programs and interviews contributed to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) by Mississippi Public Broadcasting holds special meaning to me. Having grown up in the small town of Monticello, Mississippi, many of the people, places and events recorded in programs like Conversations and Mississippi Roads endure as some of the legends of my lifetime. The geographic breadth of the content preserved in the AAPB offers almost anyone an opportunity to watch, listen and explore the history of their community, of their legends, and of their own past.

Allow me to introduce you to some of our Mississippi legends and luminaries, preserved and made available in the AAPB.

Eudora Welty
Born in Jackson, MS in 1909, Eudora Welty was a short story writer and novelist. Beginning her work in 1933 for the Works Progress Administration, her first short story “Death of a Traveling Salesman” was published in 1936. Her 1972 book The Optimist’s Daughter garnered a Pulitzer Prize.  Watch two 30 minute interviews with Eudora Welty in this episode of Conversations (1971)  and in Postscripts (1984).

 

Richard Wright
Richard Wright, born in Roxie, Mississippi — just outside of Natchez — in 1908, was an author of novels and short stories often concerning the plight of African Americans in Mississippi. Among his works are his memoir, Black Boy, and A Native Son. Watch this conversation between poet Margaret Walker and other scholars about Richard Wright in Climate for Genius; A Native Son.

John Grisham
Best known for his legal mysteries and thriller novels, John Grisham was born in 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas and moved to Southaven, Mississippi at the age of four. Some of his bestsellers include his first book, A Time to Kill, as well as A Painted House, The Client, A Pelican Brief, The Rainmaker, and The Runaway Jury, all of which have been adapted into films. Watch this conversation with John Grisham from 1995.

Willie Morris
Willie Morris is my favorite of the Mississippi writers. After growing up in Yazoo City, he moved to New York and became the youngest editor of Harper’s Magazine. He later wrote his seminal autobiography, North Toward Home. Other works include My Dog Skip, which was adapted into a feature film, Good Old Boy: A Delta Boyhood, New York Days, Ghosts of Medgar Evers, and Taps, among others. The AAPB has preserved three interviews with Willie Morris. The first was recorded in 1971, soon after he left Harper’s Magazine. Another was recorded in 1997  and was included in a tribute program to Willie Morris shortly after his death in 1999. Lastly, MPB recorded an interview with Willie Morris during the filming of My Dog Skip, shortly before his passing. The film premiered in 2000.

 

Marshall Ramsey
Marshall Ramsey is an editorial cartoonist best known to Mississippians for his works appearing in the statewide newspaper The Clarion Ledger. His cartoons have also been nationally syndicated and have appeared in The New York Times and USA Today. He’s also an author, short story writer, radio personality and television host. Learn more about Ramsey’s artwork in this episode segment of Mississippi Roads.

I had the opportunity to meet James Meredith at a diner in Jackson, MS in 2013.

James Meredith
James Meredith was born in 1933 in Kosciusko, Mississippi and is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, a figure of the Civil Rights Movement, writer and political advisor. In 1962 he became the first African American student admitted to the University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss. When he returned to Mississippi in 1960 after his service in the military, he initiated his plan to “break the system of white supremacy in Mississippi” by exercising his constitutional right to apply to the University, thereby putting pressure on the Kennedy administration to enforce civil rights. Watch this interview with James Meredith, recorded in 2002 — forty years after he integrated Ole Miss.

 

William Winter
William Winter, born in 1923 in Grenada, MS, served as the 58^th Governor of Mississippi from 1980 to 1984. He is known for his strong support of public education, freedom of information, racial reconciliation, and historic preservation. Winter is best remembered for the passage of the Mississippi Education Reform Act, which sought to improve state education and also established public kindergartens. The AAPB includes two interviews with William Winter, one regarding race relations (1998) and another regarding public education (2002).

Mac McAnally
Singer/songwriter and record producer Mac McAnally also makes my list of Mississippi luminaries and legends. Born in Red Bay, Alabama, Mac McAnally spent much of his life in Belmont, Mississippi before becoming a session musician in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Some of my favorite of his singles include “It’s a Crazy World,” “Back Where I come From,” and “Down the Road,” the latter two both made famous by Kenny Chesney. In 2007 he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and has received nine Country Music Association awards for Musician of the Year. Watch this interview with Mac McAnally on Mississippi Roads (for which he also sings the opening theme of the series).

I could go on with other examples of places and people documented in these MPB recordings that I remember as a Mississippian. Instead, here’s a challenge for you: search the archive at americanarchive.org to find your own local legends and memories documented in the programs. You can narrow your search to a station in your state, or search the records of everything from your state. What do you find? I invite you to share them in the comments of this post or on social media. Remember to tag us at @amarchivepub on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!

Ben Gogel, Research Assistant on the NewsHour Digitization Project

Over the last several months, I’ve worked as a Research Assistant at WGBH on the PBS NewsHour Digitization Project. This project involves taking the predecessor programs for the PBS NewsHour, including The MacNeil/Lehrer Report, The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and making them available to a wider audience through digitization, preservation, and online access. My specific responsibilities include reviewing the proxy files, or digital copies, of multiple NewsHour episodes and making sure they are presentable (no major audiovisual glitches, complete transcripts, subtitles are legible), and recording the information in an online spreadsheet. This may sound like a straightforward job, but working at WGBH taught me even straightforward jobs can have unpredictable aspects, and I learned a lot about adapting to new challenges and going outside my comfort zone.

Before working on this project, I attended a rigorous Archives Management program at Simmons University, learning about several archival processing practices, chief among them being More Product, Less Process (MPLP). The idea behind MPLP is that, in cases where large amounts of archival content needs to be preserved, the Archivist must focus on processing as many objects as possible. This approach served me well in several real-world internships, including two in different departments at WGBH. The first of these was in the Creative department during the summer of 2015, helping my co-workers not only track data but set up a Google Drive account so as to store it in a spreadsheet. I then parlayed this experience into my Simmons Archives Field Study capstone project in the WGBH Media Library and Archives (MLA). Throughout the winter of 2016, I reviewed and cataloged episodes of regional news magazines produced by the Wyoming PBS and Oregon Public Broadcasting. Between the academic training and real-world experience, I thought I could handle working on the NewsHour Digitization Project, but over time, I found out just how unprepared I was, in the best way possible.

While archives share general principles, every place and department I’ve worked at has its own unique, unpredictable challenges, and the same was true on this project as well. A typical day on the job involves watching NewsHour episodes in bits and pieces, making sure the videos were watchable and their accompanying materials (i.e. transcripts and subtitles) were present and accurate. Most of the time, review has been straightforward, and the clips themselves have occasionally been interesting looks at iconic figures from new perspectives: personal favorites include retrospectives on what would’ve been the 100^th birthdays of Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, for example. But there are times where I have been thrown for a loop and needed to adapt.

For clips without transcripts and/or subtitles, I had no choice but to watch them for longer time periods, paying close attention to the audio. This need for paying close attention goes both ways, and there were times during graphic reports (like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina coverage) where I needed to take small breaks to keep from getting overwhelmed emotionally. Fortunately, my co-workers and supervisor, remembering me from my previous Archives internship, have been remarkably sympathetic and understanding, which helped alleviate this stress, among other worries. The friendly, open atmosphere also encouraged me to branch out and extend a helping hand to them, and new people at WGBH, in kind.

Throughout the summer months, the MLA had several interns join over the summer, and as a welcoming gesture, I sat down with each of them for lunch on their first days, and over the course of their time I offered practical advice whenever I could, most importantly to not rule anything out vis-à-vis future work opportunities. At the same time, I myself was a fresh addition to the audience at several MeetUps and SpeakEasys: one of each a month for promoting and socializing with people from different departments of WGBH. The MeetUps even have a whole minute set aside for the purpose of introducing yourself to strangers, a nice and well-appreciated touch. Between this mentorship and more socially conducive environment, I had a support network that helped me a great deal.

As a kid, two of the biggest things that scared me were thunderstorms and spicy foods, particularly buffalo chicken. I would always stay away from both of them at every possible opportunity, to preserve my anxiety and avoid any kind of discomfort. The last few months had their fair share of stormy heat waves and spicy hot wings, but as with archival work in general, uncomfortable situations can only be avoided for so long. In the end, I had to buck up and accept that summer storms could at least be tolerated, and it helps that my co-workers never treated it as a debilitating setback. As for the spicy foods, that I did have control over, and to set a positive example for the interns, I not only tried buffalo chicken, but also pulled pork covered in Jamaican jerk seasoning. To my surprise, neither one of those foods burned my mouth off or led to searing pain, and this growth can be directly attributed to both my at-work support group and my need/willingness to handle unforeseen archiving circumstances.

Being adaptable to unpredictable elements is the most valuable lesson I learned from this experience. On-the-nose food metaphors aside, my experience with the turbulence in both the clouds and video files forced me out of my comfort zone, but it was all in terms I could understand thanks to my years of real-world experience. In my goal of preserving and making accessible the NewsHour files, I persevered and made myself more accessible as well.

Written by Ben Gogel, https://www.linkedin.com/in/bengogel/

 

 

Riley Griffin, Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellow at GPB

When we toured WGBH, we took turns holding an Emmy Award trophy (Image: Riley Griffin, author, holding an Emmy Award)

Hi, everyone!  My name is Riley Griffin (xe/xir).  I am just now entering my second year of graduate school in Clayton State University’s Masters of Archival Studies program.  I am the second fellow, after Virginia Angles, to be a part of the American Archives of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship (PBPF).  My part of the project focused on digitizing Georgia Public Broadcasting’s (GPB) Georgia Gazette under the incredibly trusting supervision of Ellen Reinhardt, Kathy Christensen, and Joshua Kitchens.  I was looking for summer opportunities when a chance at following a career path in my new-found love for preservation presented itself through the AAPBPBPF.  I was overjoyed by the scope of the fellowship, the organizations working with it, and the special collections it included.

Every fellowship starts with certain expectations only to end with different lessons and new perspectives.  At the start of my fellowship, I spent a lot of time comparing. There were a lot of things I was not expecting, my reactions being one of them.  As we visited Boston and learned about all the different types of digital media we could be working with I couldn’t help but begin to feel this sort of jealousy–wishing I could work with as many formats and topics as possible.

Of course, this hunger decreased to a low rumble as I became humbled by the Georgia Gazette materials.  I quickly realized I craved difficulty; so, I became grateful instead of jealous.  In training, we were prepared to scrub and scrub our machines clean, take precious time delicately fixing things, and balance everything to be just perfect.  However, my project was given a bit of grace by being a more modern collection. Digital Audio Tapes (DATs) are often considered one of the most fragile media formats. However, most of them were recorded at a decent quality from the 1990’s to the 2000’s, rewound to the beginning, and left alone and undisturbed in an air-conditioned radio station.  So, please forgive me when I am grateful that the worst of my worries is how many times I dropped the (very loose) pinch roller into the machine that day.

GPB Digitization Station (Image: Two desks with 2 computers, a DAT machine, cleaning materials, and various electronics everywhere)

The topics of everyone’s materials had me curious, too.  I was wondering what it was like to have video–as my project was only audio–and to have materials like oral histories to work with.  I quickly counted my blessings as I heard what my colleague was working on–images of war, tragedy, death, and disaster. I thanked GPB for having forward attitudes towards topics, reporters who were nearly-emotionless in comparison, and pert news reports.  I am a very sensitive soul and could imagine having to wait the tears out before being able to see what you’re working on. I also realized I was having a hard time with some of the Georgia Gazette material.  One thing I experience as an archivist who moves all over is major culture shock.  I think being an archivist is one of the best ways to learn about the place you have just moved to. But it also exposes you to things much quicker than you expect.

I’m from upstate New York, which has a different demographic and historical context; although I’m not unfamiliar with racism, being deeply embedded in Georgia’s racial history as I digitized GPB’s daily news was a new experience for me. I had moments of weeping at work as I listened to news reports about the Georgia General Assembly holding expensive special sessions in order to redistrict purely based on race, schoolchildren being prevented from going the schools they want as a result of segregation, and segregation’s long-term effects on Georgia school districts, which I still hear about today. Although I knew about these issues in the abstract, hearing them firsthand was very emotional for me and adding visuals might have been overwhelming.

I would be lying if I were to say I came away from this project without any further attachment to Georgia.  Although it has exposed me to some of the ugly parts I try to avoid in my daily life, it has also exposed me to so much more.  Even the drive to work showed me the oldest drive-in movie theater in the area that is still working.   I also got the opportunity to listen to all of the preparation and execution of the 1996 Olympics.  I am a huge fan of all things Olympics, so

Indeed, this was the “WORST Gazette ever” (Image: close-up of a DAT labelled “Maxell DAT; Gazette 01-20 95; WORST Gazette ever”)

this was a special treat for me. The Georgia Gazette has given me a sort of pseudo-pride of Georgia; every guest and topic on the show had a relation to Georgia.  Learning about popular historical figures like Blind Tom Wiggins or popular events like the National Grits Festival in Warwick gives me a great appreciation for where I live and the opportunities available to me here.  It has also given me a deeper and fuller appreciation for public broadcasting, something that had already been instilled in me.  In a time where everyone is flocking to Georgia for jobs, often displacing long-term Georgians, I remind myself that my brief time being here must be purposeful.  I hope to help make their history more accessible so that they can feel that true sense of pride they deserve.  With the Georgia Gazette, I hope I did just that–even if it was just a little bit.

 

Written by Riley Griffin, PBPF Summer 2018 Cohort

———

About PBPF

The Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship (PBPF), funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, supports ten graduate student fellows at University of North Carolina, San Jose State University, Clayton State University, University of Missouri, and University of Oklahoma in digitizing at-risk materials at public media organizations around the country. Host sites include the Center for Asian American Media, Georgia Public Broadcasting, WUNC, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority, and KOPN Community Radio. Contents digitized by the fellows will be preserved in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting. The grant also supports participating universities in developing long-term programs around audiovisual preservation and ongoing partnerships with their local public media stations.

For more updates on the Public Broadcasting Preservation Fellowship project, follow the project at pbpf.americanarchive.org and on Twitter at #aapbpf, and come back in a few months to check out the results of their work.

Join the American Archive of Public Broadcasting for a Road Trip through the Archive!

Archives Road Trip | Public Broadcasting | New Special Collection

Starting July 5th, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is taking a virtual road trip through the archive! Time nor space defines this trip, just an all-access pass to content that tells the story of America’s nostalgia and national identity through raw interviews, newscasts, local documentaries, and lectures among other treasures!

Access the AAPB Road Trip Special Collection here! http://americanarchive.org/special_collections/aapb-road-trip.

Selected clips from AAPB’s participating organizations will be shared through AAPB’s social media outlets (@amarchivepub), and you can view the programs in-full within the AAPB Road Trip Special Collection. The collection will be updated with new clips as the summer progresses. The segmented clips and their full programs can be found using the AAPB Road Trip interactive map.

Join us as the #AAPBRoadTrip moves from the east to west coast, and back again, visiting local festivals, monuments, lecture halls, national parks, museums, and poetry readings, among other discoveries! The trip will go through September.

The AAPB is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Education Foundation to preserve and make accessible significant, historical public broadcasting from across the nation. Collections include local broadcasts from over 100 stations, 2.5 billion inventory records, and 32,000 programs available online for the American public.

Stop #26: Lewiston, ME – Maple Syrup Making

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Maine Public Broadcasting Network. See full program here.

Stop #25:  Clarksville, IN – The Real Rosie the Riveter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from WFYI. See the full program here.

Stop #24: Chicago, IL – Interview about Frank Lloyd Wright with Ada Louise Huxtable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from WILL Public Radio. See the full program here.

Stop #23: Berlin, WI – Wisconsin Public Television

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Wisconsin Public Televison. See the full program here.

Stop #22: Duluth, MN – Africans in Minnesota

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Twin Cities Public Television. See the full program here.

Stop #21: Des Moines, IA – Camp Sunnyside

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Iowa Public Television. See the full program here.

Stop #20: Bismarck, ND – Science for the Public: Jurassic Genome

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from WGBH. See the full program here.

Stop #19: Yellowstone National Park – The Yellowstone Tourist: Evolution in the Pleasuring Ground

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Wyoming PBS. See the full program here.

Stop #18: Seattle, WA – Where Were You in 62: 25th Anniversary of the Seattle Worlds Fair, Part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from KCTS 9. See the full interview here.

Stop #17: Bethel, AK – Yupik Dance & Culture

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from KYUK’s series Yupik Dance & Culture. See the full interview here.

Stop #16: South Kona, HI – Song of South Knoa 1986

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from PBS Hawai’i’s series Spectrum Hawai’i. See the full interview here.

Stop #15: Los Angeles, CA – Maya Angelou and Ray Bradbury in the Magic Castle, 1975

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Thirteen WNET’s series Assignment America. See the full interview here.

Stop #14: Las Vegas, Nevada – Millennial Moments: Start of Las Vegas, 1999

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Vegas PBS’ series Millennial Moments. See the full interview here.

Stop #13: Gallup, NM – Navajo Code Talkers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Koahnic Broadcast Corporation’s series National Native News Special Features Assignment America. See the full interview here.

Stop #12: Corpus Christi, TX – Sissy Farenthold: A Texas Maverick

This clip is from Thirteen WNET’s program Assignment America. See the full interview here.

Stop #11: New Orleans, LA – Louisiana Legends interviews Leah Chase

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Louisiana Public Broadcasting’s program Louisiana Legends. See the full interview here.

Stop #10: Nashville, TN – Jubilee Singers Interview with American Experience featuring Musicologist Horace Clarence Boyer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from the WGBH’s American Experience program the Jubilee Singers. See the full interview here.

Stop #9: Montgomery, AL – Eyes on the Prize Interview with Rosa Parks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from the Film and Media Archive at Washington University. See the full interview here.

Stop #8: Tampa, FL – Neat Stuff: Florida’s Collectors with Oregon Public Broadcasting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Oregon Public Broadcasting. See the full program here.

Stop #7: Georgia Gazette visits the birthplace of the U.S. Girl Scouts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Georgia Public Broadcasting. See the full program here.

Stop #6: North Carolina Museums with North Carolina Now

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from North Carolina Now. See the full program here.

Stop #5: Whitesburg, KY – Appalachian Artists: The Younger Generation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Appalshop, Inc. See the full program here.

Stop #4: Maryland, PA – Nasa-Goddard Space Flight Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from Maryland Public Television. See the full program here.

Stop #3: Lancaster, PA – The American town: A self-portrait; Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, part 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

This clip is from The University of Maryland Archives. See the full program here.

Stop #2: New York, NY – In the Heights Broadway Musical with Thirteen WNET

 

This clip is from a Thirteen WNET program. See the full program here.

Stop #1: Boston, MA – Disco Dancing with WGBH

This clip is from a WGBH program. See the full program here.