PPL Plans Oral History of 1967 Riots

Important news from the Plainfield Public Library

Plainfield Public Library Receives Union County History Grant

 

The Plainfield Public Library recently received a $2,000 History Grant from the Union County Office of Cultural & Heritage Affairs. An additional $1,000 will be provided as a financial match from the Friends of Plainfield Public Library (FOPPL).  This grant will help fund the transcription of oral history recordings made by residents recalling the 1967 riots.  With the fiftieth anniversary of the riots approaching, the transcriptions will provide researchers with searchable access to important primary source material.  Entitled “Plainfield Voices: 1967 Plainfield Uprising,” twenty-five new oral histories will be recorded by a Library volunteer and outsourced to an experienced audio transcription service.

 

The goal of this project is to enhance the accessibility of the information found in the personal interviews (the audio files) to local historians, students, researchers, and the general public.  The transcriptions will increase the research capacity of the audio files by allowing for name and subject indexing, word and phrase search capability, as well as provide access to the hearing impaired.  This project will create an audio archive with clear transcriptions of residents’ memories of the civic upheaval that took place in Plainfield during July 1967. 

The Library will outsource the audio transcription to the Audio Transcription Center (ATC) in Boston, Mass. ATC is an experienced audio transcription service and we have worked with them on three previous oral history projects.

 

Interviewer Melinda Allen-Grote, who is volunteering her services, is a 35 year resident of the city of Plainfield and has 22 years of professional experience in the non-profit sector, also in Plainfield.  She has extensive experience networking and partnering with community-based organizations on the local, state and federal level.  Much of her career involved working with individuals, listening to their stories and helping them access services and helping them create opportunities for themselves. 

 

For more information about the project, or to be registered as a possible interviewee, please contact the Local History Department at908-757-1111 ext. 136.  The Plainfield Public Library is located at 800 Park Avenue.  For hours of operation, call 908-757-1111 or check the website at plainfieldlibrary.info.