As part of MATRIX’s collaborative IMLS grant to develop best practices for conducting oral history in a digital age, Scott Pennington, Head of MATRIX’s Digital Lab, traveled to New York recently to meet with the Oral History in the Digital Age (OHDA) Video curating group and advisors. Participants, including collaborators from the private sector as well as Columbia University Library, began to outline and write best practices for collecting and curating digital video for oral historians. The group’s ultimate goal is to identify new methods for collecting, curating, and distributing data as oral history moves from analog audio to digital video recording. The OHDA best practices guide is on target to enter final draft status by the end of April.

In conjunction with the Department of History at Michigan State University, MATRIX conducted a three-day training workshop and nearly one week post-workshop consulting at the National Records Service in Banjul, The Gambia.  Professor Walter Hawthorne, Chair of the Department of History; Scott Pennington, Head of Digitization at MATRIX; and Bala Saho, The Gambia’s Director General of the National Counsel for Arts and Culture, coordinated with local archive staff to assess and begin preservation and digitization of important 19th century government records.

This work is made possible by generous funding from the Endangered Archives Program at the British Library, and was featured on The Gambian Television and Radio Services News Broadcast.

Partnering with the Department of History at Michigan State University, MATRIX will be consulting at the archives of the Department of State for Justice in Banjul, The Gambia later this summer.  Professor Walter Hawthorne from MSU History, Scott Pennington, head of digitization at MATRIX, and Ph.D. Candidate Bala Saho will coordinate with local archive staff to assess and begin preservation and digitization of important 19th century government records. This work is made possible by generous funding from the Endangered Archives Program at the British Library.

The King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, part of the Saudi National Museum and home to the Saudi National Archives, invited Matrix to come to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and consult on digitization. Scott Pennington, Head of Matrix’s Digital Lab, flew to Riyadh to conduct a workshop on digitization with an emphasis on audio and video digitization. Matrix and the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives hope to form future partnerships.