The HistoryMakers Digital Archive

Tabbed

Overview

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is an extensive online, subscription database of over 10,000 hours of full-text and video interviews with African-Americans distinguished in the fields of science, culture, politics, the arts, and public life.

Provider:

The HistoryMakers [1]

Posted:

Jan 2, 2018 4:08pm

Updated:

Jul 12, 2021 1:36pm

Source

CRL reviews are based on independent research. Information is researched by CRL staff and other specialists at CRL libraries. See CRL Review for additional source notes.

Details

Collection Content

Subject Areas:

Arts and Humanities

Social Sciences

Resource Types:

Transcription

Video recordings

Major Languages:

English

- Denotes data sourced directly from publisher

Content Details:


		Comments
Topics covered	Black American foodways, Black towns and land ownership, Integration and public life, the sciences, the makings of modern music, public health and medical workers, poetry, Black theological traditions and religious life, Black feminism, migration and the Black diaspora, African survivals and the Gullah people, shifts in beauty culture, the Black Radical tradition, Black entrepreneurs, funeral rites, Black Film and filmmakers, LGBTQ stories, and Black Americans in sports
Geographic coverage	United States	Interviews also conducted in Mexico and Norway
Chronological coverage	20th to 21st century	Recollections/family stories in the collection stretch back to the 1700s.
Source format(s)	Digital Video
Total titles	2691 interviews (As of 12/19/2018)
Major language (s)	English
Digital collection launch date	2009
Completion date	N/A
Collection ongoing	Y
Update frequency	Weekly
Available supplements	N

Specifications

Metadata:


MARC records available	Y
Creator of MARC records	OCLC
Source for obtaining MARC records	OCLC
Fee for MARC records	N
Subject authorities used	Library of Congress
Name authorities used	Library of Congress

Technical Platform:


Browser compatibility	Chrome, Firefox
Authentication options	Ezproxy, IP
Archiving solution (master files)	The HistoryMakers
Archiving solution (derivative files)	Microsoft Azure cloud platform
Available in web discovery tools	Y
Local host option	N
Usage stats based on Counter code	N

Interface Tools:


Full text displayed	Y
Page images	Y
Color images	Y
Search full text	Y
Advanced search	Y
Search within results	Y
Display highlighted search terms	Y
Display snippet (search term in context)	Y
Relevance sorting	Y
Download PDF	N
Download HTML	N
Print page	N
Print full document	N
Export citations	N
Annotation tools	N
Cross-product searching	N
ILL permitted	N
Restrictions on use	N

Terms and Provider Details

Terms:


Subscription option	Y
Purchase option	N
Multiple year payments option	Y
Maintenance fees	N
Hosting charges	N

Provider:

The HistoryMakers [1]

Website:

http://www.thehistorymakers.org [2]

Main Address:

1900 S. Michigan Avenue

Chicago, IL 60616

United States

CRL Review

Collection Content:

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is is an online subscription database containing over 10,000 hours of full-text and video interviews with African Americans distinguished in the fields of science, culture, politics, the arts, and public life. The HistoryMakers is a non-profit institution committed to "preserving, developing and providing easy access to an internationally recognized archival collection of thousands of African American video oral histories" conducted between 1999 and the present.¹

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is a continually growing resource, projected to include as many as 3,000 interviews by the end of 2018. The Digital Archive presently contains only a subset of all interviews conducted by the HistoryMakers organization: the HistoryMakers has produced and is continuing to produce African American oral histories for the archive (at present, the HistoryMakers' goal is to complete 5,000 interviews). The HistoryMakers Digital Archive does include the ca. 100 oral histories presently contained in the ProQuest HistoryMakers oral history video archive [3]. THM has noted the relationship with ProQuest will end in 2019.

Content selection is driven by the organization's definition of a HistoryMaker.² Interview subjects include more than 200 African American scientists; public figures ("CivicMakers") like civil rights activist Angela Davis and foundation executive Marian Wright Edelman; artists, musicians, and performers; educators and lawmakers; and political figures including General Colin Powell, Vernon Jordan, and (then Illinois State Senator) Barack Obama. Each interviewee page includes biographical information and indexed fields such as category of HistoryMaker, gender, occupation, and decade of birth.

All interviews were shot on broadcast quality video, and encoded as separate MPEG-1 video files. Interviews are divided at natural boundaries to create thematic video segments (averaging 4 to 6 minutes each). Each segment is accompanied by a fully audit-edited transcript ("based on the Minnesota Historical Society's standards for oral history transcription" and proofread and edited for context and style standards).³ Transcripts are fully text-searchable and linked to the appropriate interview segment. Segments are fully indexed by dates, topics and locations using Library of Congress Subject Headings.

A small subset of interviews have been enhanced with metadata ("tagged stories") including information on historical context, biographical themes, and interview qualities.

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is the product of the most systematic, wide-ranging attempt to capture the personal testimonies of African Americans since the 1930s Works Progress Administration’s (WPA) recording of former slaves. The HistoryMakers stated, "The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is a unique, one of a kind reference tool that puts the archival holdings of the nation's largest African American video oral history archive that are housed at the Library of Congress at your faculty and students' fingertips."

For more information on The HistoryMakers Digital Archive, click on the Appendix tab to see the HistoryMakers' brochures and product information. The HistoryMakers presented an informational webinar to the CRL membership [4]in February 2019.

Delivery:

The platform features text search capabilities, and faceted filtering for interviews that average 3-4 hours in length and that are fully subject-indexed and accompanied by written transcripts synchronized to run alongside each video section. Both transcripts and interview metadata are keyword searchable and the interface provides abstracts of every 30 minutes of recorded testimony, in addition to the interviews being segmented into granular 3-5 minute ‘story’ segments.

Users may create "playlists" to store, organize, and share interviews with other authorized users.

Hosted in Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform and developed using Microsoft’s Angular 2 platform. See Appendix tab for an overview of database features. URLs provide for easy citing and sharing of video segments. Users can organize, annotate, create and save clips under their own playlists.

MARC records at the interview level are available for subscribing institutions.

Terms:

The HistoryMakers Digital Archive is available as an annual subscription, with a subscription period of July 1-June 30. One-time purchases are not available.

The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is the exclusive licensing agent for academic libraries in the United States and Canada.

To review a sample of the subscriber license agreement, click here. [5]

Non-CRL or non-NERL core libraries will be assessed a service fee of no more than 3% of the subscription price.

For institutions interested in trial access, price quote, and a subscription, please contact CRL's Francis Alba at falba@crl.edu [6].

To subscribe to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive, institutions will need to sign a final copy of the Subscriber License Agreement [5] and complete the Order Form [7] and return to falba@crl.edu [6].

For CRL to provide a final copy of the Subscriber License Agreement, CRL will need to know the student FTE, intended start date of the subscription, and the number of years the institution would like to subscribe.

Sources

Sources for this review include information publicly posted or obtained directly from the publisher; data collected by CRL staff and specialists at CRL libraries; and examination of the digital collection when possible. Other sources are noted where cited. CRL continues to gather additional information on this resource and to solicit critical assessment.

Additional Reviews in Other Sources:

ccAdvisor review [8]

Endnotes:

1. "Background" https://www.thehistorymakers.org/background [9] (accessed 8 March 2019)

2. "Who is a HistoryMaker?" Frequently Asked Questions, https://www.thehistorymakers.org/faqs [10] (accessed 8 March 2019).

3. "Digital Archive Procedures" http://www.thehistorymakers.org/digital-archive/procedures [11]

CRL Offers & Status

Status	Current	Description
CRL Flagged	no	Potential interest to CRL community
Offer Pending	no	Currently a candidate for CRL offer
Active Offer	yes	Currently offered for purchase or new subscription
Trial Access	yes	Available for trial
Renewal Offer	no	Currently offered for renewal
Expired Offer	no	Past offers
Inactive / Declined	no	No longer under consideration by CRL
Reviewed by CRL	yes	Evaluation available by CRL and community
Special Access	no	Member-only access available for a limited time