By Finding aid prepared by Chris Petersen.
Title: Oregon State University Libraries and Press Oral History Collection, 2018-2023
Predominant Dates: 2018-2019
ID: OH 041
Primary Creator: Gruber, Tyger Lake
Extent: 44.05 gigabytes. More info below.
Arrangement: The collection is arranged into two series: 1. Interviews, 2018-2023; 2. Promotional Film, 2019. The interviews arranged into series 1 have been organized chronologically.
Languages of Materials: English [eng]
The Oregon State University Libraries and Press (OSULP) Oral History Collection primarily consists of audio-recorded interviews conducted with current employees of the OSU Libraries and the OSU Press, all of which were structured using a set script of interview questions. A smaller subset of the collection is comprised of more individually tailored interviews with former employees of the OSU Libraries. Members of each OSULP branch and department are represented in the collection, which includes interviews with library faculty, staff and student workers.
Online access to most of the interviews, as well as a promotional video, is provided through a dedicated project homepage. Reference access to the rest of the interviews, except the Patrick Layton interview, is available upon patron request. Permission for access may be granted only by Patrick Layton. For more information about access to restricted materials, please see our Guide to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center.
The Oregon State University Libraries and Press (OSULP) Oral History Collection consists, in large part, of audio-recorded interviews conducted with library and press employees, both current and former, who participated in the OSULP Community Interviewing Project. This initiative sought to collect institutional knowledge about OSULP while also building community among the libraries and press staff. Nearly all of the interviews were conducted by Tyger Gruber, an OSU undergraduate in Kinesiology, who led interviewees through a series of pre-scripted questions focusing on academic trajectories, paths to work in the library profession, and dreams for the organization and OSU writ large.
Some of these interviews were lightly edited for continuity and all were made available for streaming and download via a dedicated project homepage.
Gruber also conducted individually tailored interviews with three retired librarians - Susan Gilmont, Ruth Vondracek and Loretta Reilly - that sought to collect a more detailed overview of each narrator's life. Project director Chris Petersen prepared and conducted a similar set of interviews in Fall 2019 with four current and former employees of OSULP: Brandon Straley, Sami Kerzel, Rick Stoddart and Sara Thompson.
Fifty interviews were collected in total for this project, representing the Valley Library (Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the Guin Library (Newport, Oregon) and OSU-Cascades Library (Bend, Oregon). Current faculty (20), classified staff (14) or student workers (7) from all of the Valley Library's departments participated in the project. These departments are as follows: Emerging Technologies and Services (ETS); the Library Experience and Access Department (LEAD); Library Administration; the OSU Press; Resource Acquisition Services (RAS); the Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC); and the Teaching and Engagement Department (TED). Interviews with an OSULP Diversity Scholar and the Oregon Explorer program director were likewise included, as were sessions with six past employees.
Two of the interviews - with Susan Gilmont and Chris Petersen - have been transcribed and made available online. None of the remaining project interviews have been transcribed.
All interviews were recorded to *.wav format with *.mp3 derivatives, and reference access is available upon patron request.
In addition to these audio files, the collection also includes one *.mov video file - a promotional film created by Gruber and consisting of footage of the Valley Library that he shot as well as audio clips from the collection that he curated. The clips used in the film consist of selected participant responses to the question, "what is your dream for the OSU Libraries and Press?" Two additional video recorded interviews with archivist Larry Landis were conducted by Chris Petersen in 2023.
Paper permission forms signed by each interviewee have been scanned to .pdf and are stored with a given interview's access files on the SCARC file server. The original paper forms have been retained and are held in the SCARC central files as well.
Libraries have been integral to both the intellectual life and the social fabric of Oregon State University since the institution's inception. The first campus library was housed in the Administration Building (present-day Community Hall) and remained there until 1918, when a new and dedicated library building - named the Kerr Library in 1954 and known today as Kidder Hall - was completed. In 1963 the library's collection was moved south across the quad to a new iteration of the Kerr Library. This building was renovated and expanded in the mid-1990s, and renamed the Valley Library in 1998.
The Hatfield Marine Science Center Library at Newport, Oregon came into being in 1976 and was dedicated to the memory of its first librarian, Marilyn Potts Guin, in 1990. The OSU-Cascades Library was opened as a component of the Bend campus' Tykeson Hall when the building was completed in 2016. The Oregon State University Press, which was founded in 1961, became an administrative unit within the OSU Libraries in 2007 and is physically housed in the Valley Library as well.
When the OSULP Community Interviewing Project took place in 2018-2019, the OSU Libraries and Press were led by University Librarian Faye Chadwell, and Associate University Librarians Anne-Marie Deitering and Cheryl Middleton. OSULP was funded by an annual budget of $12.7 million and run by 58 FTE of professional staff and 41 FTE of student assistance. The libraries provided access to about 2 million books and nearly 69,000 electronic journal titles, and hosted around 35,000 patrons every week.
The OSULP Community Interviewing Project was funded by a $3,000 budget allocation from the Gray Family Chair for Innovative Library Services. It was motivated by a desire to collect institutional memory and build community within OSULP, and was further spurred by OSULP In-Service feedback indicating interest in digital storytelling. More details about the project's design and execution are available in ScholarsArchive@OSU.
More Extent Information: 49 audio files and 3 video files born digital
Statement on Access: Collection is open for research. Access to the Patrick Layton interview is restricted. Permission for access may be granted only by Patrick Layton. For more information about access to restricted materials, please see our Guide to the Special Collections and Archives Research Center.
Physical Access Note: All interview materials are also available for download via the project's dedicated homepage.
Acquisition Note: All interviews were conducted by Tyger Gruber or Chris Petersen for deposit with the Special Collections and Archives Research Center.
Related Materials:
Other oral history interviews with OSU LIbraries and Press employees are held in the Voices of Oregon State University Oral History Collection (OH 009), the History of Science Oral History Collection (OH 017), and the Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Collection (OH 026).
Further documentation of the history of libraries at Oregon State University is held in the Library Records (RG 009), the Libraries Moving Images (FV 083), and the Library Photograph Collection (P 083), as well as the Friends of the Library Records (RG 002), the Library Gifts and Exchange Department Records (RG 261), the William H. Carlson Papers (MSS Carlson), the Rodney Waldron Papers (MSS Waldron), the Bertha Herse Collection (MSS Herse), and the Oregon State University Memorabilia Collection (MSS MC).
A great many photos of OSU's libraries have been digitized and made available via Oregon Digital, and a full run of the OSULP development magazine The Messenger can be accessed virtually through ScholarsArchive@OSU.
Preferred Citation: Oregon State University Libraries and Press Oral History Collection (OH 41), Special Collections and Archives Research Center, Oregon State University Libraries.
Gruber, Tyger Lake
Petersen, Chris (Christoffer)
Academic libraries--Oregon--History.
Guin Library
Librarians--Oregon--Corvallis.
Library employees--Oregon--Corvallis.
Oregon State University--Employees.
Oregon State University--Faculty.
Oregon State University--Students.
Oregon State University. Libraries
University History
Born digital.
Digital audio formats.
Oral histories (literary genre)
Video recordings (physical artifacts)