You Have a Milestone to Celebrate. Now What?

The 2019-2020 academic year marked the Lynn University Conservatory of Music’s 20th anniversary. The archivist and music librarian combined their individual strengths to create a special tribute to this milestone. Our contribution was in two formats: a documentary-style video and a historical timeline. The idea of producing a video was born from the idea of conducting an oral history project. We hoped to produce a commemorative video that told the unique story of the Conservatory’s inception and evolution over two decades - and the characters involved. But first, we had to secure a budget to enlist two film studies students to help us shoot the interviews and edit the video. Then, we interviewed the past and current presidents of the university, Deans of the Conservatory, and faculty who were essential in developing the two pillars of the program – the chamber music and orchestra programs. And, because you can’t have a video about a conservatory of music without music, we commissioned a musical work from the composition student to use in the background. Because the Archives is home to diverse historical artifacts, such as news clippings and archival photos, we utilized them to create an interactive historical timeline to visually show the Conservatory’s development. We chose Knights Lab’s TimelineJS, as it was easy to use, simple to integrate into our institutional repository, and visually appealing. These efforts later set the stage for the university-wide celebration and promotion of the anniversary. We consulted with the Marketing department to adhere to university branding guidelines. The video and timeline were showcased on social media, such as YouTube, and shown at concerts and fundraising events. In this presentation, we will discuss how, with a limited budget and staff, we conducted oral history interviews with the idea of using segments to produce a commemorative video. We will also describe the steps we took to create a digital, interactive historical timeline using an open-source tool. Participants will learn the basics of producing a video based on interviews and how to lead a multi-departmental anniversary project.