First Person Project Hosts Theme Day for Big Year Series

This September the First Person Project, an oral history series documenting the experiences of everyday Georgians, invites participants to tell stories around the theme “It was a Big Year" on Friday, September 13th in room 268 of the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries.

Was there a year that changed things moving forward for you or your family? Or maybe there was a year when national or international events made you rethink ideas about politics, religion, or social relations? The First Person Project is looking for stories about years of change, time periods that reshaped the lives of individuals, and we want to hear from you. 

Six sets of partners will be accepted for this First Person Project session, scheduled for Friday, September 13th between 9:00am and 4:00pm. Each audio recording session takes one hour to complete. Photographs will also be taken for each session. The Russell Library 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 participant pair.

This day of oral history is part of It Was a Big Year, a program series inspired by the exhibit Now and Then: 1973, currently on display in the Russell Library Gallery at the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. For more information on other programs in the series, visit: http://rbrl.blogspot.com/search/label/BigYear 

If you have a friend or family member with a story to tell, become a part of the First Person Project. 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, please email russlib@uga.edu or call (706) 542-5788.

More About the First Person Project
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.