ROHO's New Catalogue Covers Two Decades (1980-1998)

Bancroft's Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) has published Catalogue II (1980-98). The new catalogue includes a forward by Charles B. Faulhaber, the James D. Hart, director of the Bancroft Library.

The 1980 Catalogue of the Regional Oral History Office (Catalogue I) lists 388 volumes of interviews completed during ROHO's first twenty-five years. Now, almost twenty years later, Catalogue II includes an even more outstanding record of accomplishment; 625 volumes of interviews. Where Catalogue I taps the memories of Californians whose stories stretched back to pioneer forbears, the 1906 earthquake, World War I, women's suffrage, and the early labor movement, Catalogue II brings the story dramatically up to date in a world where the Vietnam War, the free speech movement, women in politics, AIDS, and the environment are important issues.

Oral history is an ideal process for understanding the past and the unfolding present, and for preserving voices that would not otherwise be heard. Tape-recorded oral history interviews capture firsthand accounts of important events and life experiences from people who observed and participated in them. They fill the gaps in the written record and make history come alive with personal and anecdotal material.

Senior interviewer Suzanne Riess and ROHO staff edited and produced Catalogue II, which is attractively bound and printed in the typographic tradition of Lawton Kennedy, famous Bay Area typographer. It was generously underwritten by the San Francisco Foundation, the Bancroft Library Publications Fund, and John W. and Barbara Rosston.

Catalogue II is priced at $14.50, plus $2.50 shipping and handling; a few copies of Catalogue I are available for readers who wish to purchase both catalogues at $20 plus $2.50 shipping and handling for the pair. Catalogue orders should be addressed to: Regional Oral History Office, 486 Library, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-6000. For additional information please contact ROHO by telephone (510/642-7395), fax (510/642-7589) and e-mail (roho@library.berkeley.edu). Both catalogues can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/