The Columbia University Libraries announced today that the Oral History Research Office has been renamed the Columbia Center for Oral History (CCOH). The new name reflects the increasing capacity of CCOH to provide international leadership in the field of oral history through its educational programs, teaching, digital capacity, and innovative research projects that touch on the central historical issues of our times.
"This name change is expressive of the increasing centrality of oral history itself, in creating archives of memory, working across the disciplines and connecting the academy to the world just beyond its borders," Columbia Center for Oral History Director, Mary Marshall Clark, said.
The name change is effective as of June 1, 2011.
Columbia Center for Oral History was founded in 1948 as a center for conducting biographical interviews on political history. CCOH is renowned both for the breadth of its holdings and its vision for developing oral history as a field of study and practice. Scholars consistently turn to CCOH not only for its collections, but for guidance in how to teach and practice oral history. Increasingly, through the development of educational programs and innovative research projects, CCOH serves as a laboratory for the continual development of oral history methodologies across the disciplines. In turn, students and scholars trained by CCOH produce new scholarship and create new interviews, enriching the archive and expanding the breadth of oral history as a field of study and practice. CCOH is home for over 20,000 hours of recorded conversations, and over 8,000 interviews conducted on almost every subject in American history, in addition to the history of science, medicine, philanthropy, public health, and the arts. For more information, please visit library.columbia.edu/indiv/ccoh.html.
Columbia University Libraries/Information Services is one of the top five academic research library systems in North America. The collections include over 11 million volumes, over 150,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, and graphic and audio-visual materials. The services and collections are organized into 22 libraries and various academic technology centers. The Libraries employs more than 500 professional and support staff. The website of the Libraries is the gateway to its services and resources: library.columbia.edu.