History
by
Laura Hibbler, Editor
Reports from History Section events at ALA:
Genealogy Pre-Conference
This semi-annual event was held on Friday, 6/23/2017, and we had 110 attendees, including several same-day registrants. It was free to attend–including lunch for all participants–thanks to Proquest’s generous sponsorship. Session topics included: improving your genealogy reference interview; an overview of new, classic, and improved genealogy websites that are free to use; and a panel focused on World War I databases and projects that can be of interest to users, as well as an inspiration to libraries (including an overview of MissouriOverThere.org, a collaborative statewide project). The final panel of the day explored collaborative opportunities and strategies between libraries, museums, and genealogical societies. Sixty-three of the attendees completed surveys evaluating the pre-conference sessions and outlining topics of interest for future pre-conferences.
Chicago as a Model for Public History: Initiatives and Collaborations
105 people attended this program, which consisted of a panel of speakers who are public history practitioners working to engage people with the history of Chicago through various means. Dr. Erik Gellman spoke about the Chicago Labor Trail, a way of touring the city to get an unvarnished, non-sanitized view of labor in the city. Peter Alter presented on the Chicago History Museum’s oral history project that worked with middle/high school students and their undergraduate “near peer” mentors to document a more complete view of the East Garfield Park neighborhood. Hope Shannon spoke about Loyola University’s Public History Lab, a graduate student-led project that had a goal to build the structures for ongoing public history work within several different Chicago communities. Co-sponsored by MAGIRT, this program is available as a recording. Log into the conference app or its EventScribe website to access the recording.
The History Section also co-sponsored two events at ALA:
- How to Put Your Family History on the Map: Georeferencing and Geocoding Historical Information (Saturday, June 24 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Location: McCormick Place, S104)
- Mapping the Generations: Visualizing Family History with Maps (Saturday, June 24 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Location: McCormick Place, S104)