The OMA was featured in “Internet Reviews” within College & Research Libraries News!
Below is the text of the post, and here is the link to Vol 79 No 8 (2018) Internet Reviews
The Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA) web portal gathers the Oregon State University (OSU) Special Collections and Archives Researcher Center and OSU Library’s archival and digital collections on African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American communities. OMA was established in 2005 to highlight its multicultural collections as well as provide a link out to other institutions and organizations with multicultural archives. Since then it has grown through collaborations with multicultural educators and archivists, museums, other academic library special collections, and organizations such as the Oregon Tribal Archives Institute and the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. OMA, over the past 13 years, has developed into a rich, engaging resource of multicultural history in the Pacific Northwest for students and researchers alike.
Readers can browse guides on general information or specific peoples and cultures. The guides feature special projects, manuscript collections, special topics, a community’s history in Oregon, Oregon Multicultural Communities Research Collection files, and their connection within the OSU community.
The African American People and Culture guide, for example, gathers descriptions and links to records of organizations like the Urban League of Portland and St. Philip the Deacon Parish. It also provides finding aids for manuscript collections such as the Oregon African American Railroad Porters Oral History Collection, Harold C. Williams Papers documenting community activism and civic leadership, and the Corvallis branch of the NAACP. Histories of OSU campus organizations such as Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center and Black Student Union (BSU), and student activism like the BSU walkout of 1969 and the 1996 student boycott are included.
The Latinos en Oregon Oral History Interviews is a project between Yamhill County Cultural Coalition, Yamhill County Historical Society and Museum, Oregon Multicultural Archives, and Unidos Bridging Community. It has more than 30 interviews featuring diverse stories from Latino communities in Yamhill County, Madras, The Gorge, Hood River, and The Dalles, Oregon. The collection has audio, video, and interview summaries in Spanish and some English.
The guide illustrates a vibrant and diverse picture of Oregon’s communities. This engaging site highlights the integral part these communities’ histories play in contributing to Oregon’s identity, and the overall history of the region.
—Hilary Robbeloth, University of Puget Sound
“Internet Reviews” by Joni R. Roberts and Carol A. Drost
Joni R. Roberts is associate university librarian for public services and collection development at Willamette University, and Carol A. Drost is associate university librarian for technical services at Willamette University
