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Backpack-Sized Archiving Kit Empowers Community Historians to Record Local Narratives

Category: Community Engagement & Impact
An archivist in a Backpack oral history kit(Courtesy Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill
An archivist in a Backpack oral history kit(Courtesy Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina and Chapel Hill

Community-driven archive projects at UNC at Chapel Hill’s Southern Historical Collection are putting archival materials and tools into the hands of folks across the country to support heritage collection and preservation by small history and grassroots groups.

 

“…we want to help demystify the process of preserving and sharing history and empower people to get out there and further their projects,” McRobbie said. “Our staff are inspired by the work that is already being done in communities, often with extremely shoestring resources, and hope to offer some additional tools.”

-Josephine McRobbie

The new Archivist in a Backpack project from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill equips community partners with tools to start material and oral history archives. Much of our understanding of the past is based on archives, and who assembles those records, and decides what's worthy of protection.

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