The Oral History Manual

Barbara W. Sommer, M.A., BWS Associates, has over forty years of experience in the public history and oral history fields. She has been principal investigator and director of more than thirty major community oral history projects on topics ranging from healthcare to the arts and has taught oral history in post-secondary and community settings. She has been a presenter at state, national, and international conferences, and is a long-time member of the Oral History Association (OHA) where she has served in several leadership positions. She is the author and co-author of many books and articles including a number of oral history publications, several in multiple editions. She wrote her award-winning book Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota (2008, re-issued in paperback in 2022) and her book, Quilt House: The International Quilt Study Center & Museum (2012) based on, and using information from, oral history projects she led. She holds degrees from Carleton College and the University of Minnesota. Mary Kay Quinlan, Ph.D., is associate dean emerita at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she taught for 20 years. Quinlan also has taught or team-taught journalism, oral history, and American history classes at UNL, the University of Maryland, Nebraska Wesleyan, and Doane University. Before turning to the classroom, Quinlan had a 15-year career as a newspaper reporter, primarily as a Washington correspondent for the Omaha World-Herald and Gannett News Service, during which time she served as president of the National Press Club. She has been active in regional and national oral history activities for many years and has served as editor of the Oral History Association Newsletter since 1993. Quinlan’s oral history background includes conducting workshops, teaching, and co-authoring (with Barbara W. Sommer and others) several oral history publications, and she has presented at regional, national and international conferences. Quinlan earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and French from UNL, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in American studies, also from Maryland. In 2022 she was inducted into the Nebraska Women Journalists Hall of fame.