Indexing as Engaging Oral History Research: Using OHMS to “Compose History” in the Writing Classroom

This article presents a case study about a recent collaboration between the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries and a professor at the University of Kentucky to use the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS)—an open source, free online application originally designed for enhancing archival access to oral history—as a pedagogical tool to elevate student engagement with oral history in the classroom. The authors—the oral history center director and creator of OHMS; a professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies (WRD); and an undergraduate WRD student assigned the task of using OHMS to index oral history—reflect on this collaboration from their own perspectives. This collaboration between the archive and the classroom at the University of Kentucky provides an innovative, experiential learning model for engaging undergraduate students in the critical thinking and research aspects of working with oral history, and the article reflects on the impact and potential for future applications of this model.