University of Kansas Professor Launches Oral History Project

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Joan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 4/7/2008 2:00:00 PM

Tami Albin, a University of Kansas instruction and outreach librarian, remembers getting the message when she was little that it was inappropriate to have crushes on other girls. Albin also remembers the few books available about growing up gay when she went looking for answers in her public library.

Those are some of the reasons why Albin, 38, is reaching out to gay, lesbian, bisexual, trangendered, and questioning (GLBTQ) youth—and their parents—by recording up to 100 oral history interviews that will be posted next September on KU's ScholarWorks Web site, an online digital repository. 

Kids seeking more information about others who have experienced what they’re going through will be able to access Albin's interviews with a wide range of people—from a goat farmer and a minister to a school teacher and a man who has been HIV-positive for 28 years—all telling their rich life stories.

Albin's archive, based in Lawrence, isn’t coming from people living in big cities like San Francisco or New York, but middle America. And that's important, says Albin. "My partner and I moved to Kansas six-and-a-half years ago from upstate New York," she says. "The only thing I knew about Kansas was The Wizard of Oz and The Day After.

Albin and her partner, Sherri Tucker, a professor of American Studies at KU, are glad they made the move. But they’re also surprised by the misperception by colleagues from other regions that Kansas gays must be "sad" and "closeted." That’s part of the reason why the couple came up with the idea of an oral history project named "Under the Rainbow." Using $10,000 in faculty and research grants, Albin has finished 20 interviews and anticipates sessions with more of the 100-plus people, ages 25 to 80, who have contacted her. Interviews will be available as transcripts, streaming video, and streaming audio.

"This is a collection that will help academics understand GLBT life in the Midwest," Albin explains. "Because so much work has been done on the coasts, people are starting to look at the Midwest."

For GLBT scholars in particular, the region is about to become "a big topic of discussion," she predicts. She plans to contribute by delivering a scholarly presentation about her project during the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) conference in New York on May 8–10.

Besides the academic focus, there is a youth angle here too, the librarian says. "My goal with this collection is to have material that someone can Google. This collection is very important for kids 'coming out' because it will help them realize they're not the only ones, they're not alone. They can hear [in the videotaped interviews] people say, 'I knew at a young age' or 'this is how I was feeling.'”