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This project would purchase all necessary equipment for comprehensive preservation of oral histories of Kenai Peninsula homesteaders and other pioneers while they are still alive.
This project is intended as both a long-term working project that without future costs and as a pilot project that can be inexpensively used in other District 5010 clubs to preserve the histories of their regions.
Videographic oral history collection is one of the best ways to preserve important historical data and personal stories and to preserve the sense and culture of the community while people are still alive. Video oral histories are alive and can reveal far more than dry documents alone.
By preserving the raw data while participants are still alive, members of the community and visitors can learn about the Kenai Peninsula in a more interesting manner while data is gathered for future researchers while still available.
This oral history project will develop a standard interview protocol in conjunction with a professional historian recently retired from the University of Alaska system and with the Consortium Library at UA - Anchorage, where a major state oral history collection resides.
Soldotna Rotary Club would purchase and make available to the Soldotna Historical Society a high-grade video camera and suitable sound recording equipment, backup audio equipment, high performance (refurbished) Dell image processing computer, scanner with ability to automatically repair images of damaged old paper photo prints, and data backup hardware.
Soldotna Rotary club members would provide instruction in the use of the equipment, computers and software, would participate in collecting oral histories, would coordinate with academic oral history programs in the State of Alaska, and would develop and share best practices protocols.
In addition, Soldotna Rotary Club would separately donate a high quality Pentax K-3 still camera for photographic data collection and would refurbish a donated computer system for use by the public in viewing collected oral histories.
This is the number one grant priority of Soldotna Rotary Club for 2017-2018 and this project would be managed by Past-President Dale Bagley, who is also a former Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor and is currently President of Soldotna Historical Society.
The Soldotna Rotary Club would provide $1500 cash toward purchase of new equipment and would donate a further $1,000 in kind (donated Pentax K3 and refurbished viewer computer.
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