Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian

As usual, this Monday’s link roundup is pretty eclectic.  For music buffs, check out MIT’s Oral History Project which looks at 100 years of music at MIT. For fans  of singer, songwriter Kathy Mattea,  don’t miss her interview with Graffiti Magazine about her latest album Coal. She talks about the importance of place and family in the writing of the songs. And for any of you thinking about using speech recognition software, you might be quite surprised by Jon Morrow’s 20-minute video. I certainly was.

• Canadian Genealogy Centre. The Centre, under the auspices of Library and Archives Canada,  states that its mission and vision is:  “to facilitate the discovery of our roots and family histories as a basic part of our Canadian heritage. To encourage the use of genealogy and the resources available in libraries and archives as tools for life-long learning.”

• Eyeless in Gaza. “Joe Sacco is one of the world’s leading exponents of the graphic novel form…writers often get called “unique”. But Sacco’s work truly is, combining as it does oral history, memoir and reportage with cartoons in a way that, when he started out, most people – himself included, at times – considered utterly preposterous.”

• Music at MIT Oral History Project. “For over 100 years, music has been a vibrant part of MIT’s culture. This history covers a wide variety of genres, including orchestral, chamber, and choral musical groups, as well as jazz, musical theater, popular and world music…Through in-depth recorded audio interviews with current and retired MIT music faculty, staff, former students, and visiting artists, the Music at MIT Oral History Project is preserving this valuable legacy for the historical record.”

• Kathy Mattea on coal and frog gigging. “The Grammy-winning West Virginia native talks to [Graffiti Magazine] about her new album, ‘Coal’… I’ve gone through music I had long since forgotten; I’ve discovered the roots to a lot of music I’ve been doing for a long time…I uncovered a lot of family stories; my own history. I mean it has been profound; really a life changing experience.”

• A Conversation with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. “A month before his death, Sen. Edward “Ted” Kennedy discussed the making of his memoir, True Compass. This interview was conducted via e-mail in July 2009.”

• Software helps share stories. “A team of researchers with the Montreal Life Stories project and the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS) have been able to turn a wish list of possibilities into a software program capable of organizing, classifying and eventually sharing recordings of memories and experiences. Stories Matter is a free, adaptable software program capable of working with Macs or PCs.”

• Does Speech Recognition Software Really Work? “One of my favorite posts from around the web last week came from our own Associate Editor Jon Morrow. He recorded a 20-minute video post for Problogger about how he works with speech recognition software to do all of his blogging.”

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