World Libraries: Veterans History Project launches subsidiary video program

The Veterans History Project (VHP) at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center offers a new video for volunteer interviewers - a "how-to" guide on recording the first-person oral histories of American wartime veterans.

"This 15-minute video explains the straightforward steps that volunteer interviewers can follow to record the first-person interviews of American wartime veterans and send them to the Library of Congress. Now it’s easier than ever to participate in the Veterans History Project," said VHP Director Bob Patrick.

The Video program of VHP project offers special interview tips from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, suggests how volunteer interviewers can get started, demonstrates how to record an interview, instructs how to submit a collection to the Library, and explains how the Library of Congress archives this collection for the general public and researchers.

The Veterans History Project was created in 2000 by Congress as a national documentation program of the American Folklife Center to record, preserve and make accessible the first-hand remembrances of American wartime veterans so that future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. Approximately 66,000 individual stories comprise the collection to date. The project relies on volunteers to record veterans’ remembrances using these guidelines.