Society & Culture

Russell Library to host First Person Project Interview Day April 19

Athens, Ga. – The next interviews for the First Person Project, a new oral history series documenting the experiences of everyday Georgians, are set for April 19 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries at the University of Georgia.

Modeled roughly on StoryCorps, a national initiative partnered with National Public Radio and the Library of Congress, the First Person Project is smaller in scale but similar in concept, providing tools to would-be oral history interviewers and interviewees, including tips on how to create questions and conduct interviews. The project was inspired by the belief that everyone is an eyewitness to history, and that everyone, sometimes with a little encouragement, has a story to tell.

Six sets of partners will be accepted for this First Person Project session. Each audio recording session takes one hour to complete. Photographs will also be taken for each session. The Russell Library for Political Research and Studies will archive the interviews to add to its documentation of life in post-20th century Georgia and will provide participants with a free digital download of the recording and photographs. A $10 donation is suggested for each pair of participants.

Reservations are on a first-come first-serve basis and can be made by calling 706/542-5788 or registering online at http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell/fpp/fpp_register.html.

For more information on this event and other upcoming First Person Project days, email russlib@uga.edu or call 706/542-5788.

Participants should meet in Room 268 of the Russell Special Collections Building, 300 S. Hull Street, in Athens.

To learn more about the Russell Library, see http://www.libs.uga.edu/russell.