Visual History Archive (VHA)

2017

Agenda• Genesis of the Visual History Archive (VHA)

• VHA description, key statistics, & value proposition

• USC Shoah Foundation and ProQuest partnership

• VHA facts, figures, & updates

• VHA demonstration screenshots

• VHA transcripts

• Filming the VHA

• VHA in teaching & research

• Bundle themes

• Etc.

Genesis of the VHA

https://sfi.usc.edu/pressroom/kit

VHA:description, key statistics,

& value proposition

What is the Visual History Archive?• The Visual History Archive is a streaming, 24/7, collection of over

~55,000 video testimonies of survivors and witnesses of genocide, including:– The European Holocaust (1939-1945)– Armenian Genocide (1915-1923)– Nanjing Massacre (1937)– Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda (1994)– Guatemalan Genocide (1978-1996)– Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979)

• An intuitive platform on which one may filter/view/save testimonies for research

Key statistics

VHA value proposition

• New streaming, 24/7, of all ~55,000 testimonies

• No more infrastructure requirements like an Internet2 line or dedicated cache server

• Links to related PQIS primary source content—at both the segment- and testimony-level—to which an institution is entitled, with ability to sort results

• 910 German transcripts available, with English transcripts due in 2017

• More acquisition models, like a one-time purchase (PAL) with continuing service fee (CSF), a subscription (SUB), etc.

• On the ProQuest platform in 2018…

USC Shoah Foundation and ProQuest partnership

USC Shoah Foundation and ProQuest partnership

USC Shoah Foundation goal = Expand access to thousands of researchers and institutions

ProQuest committed to:

1. Serving as exclusive distributor to these markets: higher education; government; museums

2. Providing related ProQuest PQIS content at the one-minute segment- and testimony-level

3. Creating transcripts for video testimonies

VHAfacts, figures, and updates

Testimonies by organizationEuropean Holocaust, 1939-1945

• USC Shoah Foundation—51,438

• Jewish Family and Children's Services (JFCS), San

Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties—912

• Florida Holocaust Museum—25

• Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus—25

• Holocaust Museum Houston—272

• Canadian Collections—1,232– Alex Dworkin Canadian Jewish Archives--64– Calgary Jewish Federation--10– Concordia University Centre for Oral History & Digital

Storytelling--30– Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre--52– Jewish Archives & Historical Society of Edmonton & Northern

Alberta--15– Living Testimonies, McGill University—103 – Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre—549 – Sarah and Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre--406– Ottawa Jewish Archives—3

TOTAL Holocaust: 53,904

Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923• Armenian Film Foundation—333• USC Shoah Foundation—1

Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, 1994• Kigali Genocide Memorial--70• USC Shoah Foundation—15• Holocaust Museum Houston—1

Nanjing Massacre, 1937• USC Shoah Foundation—30

Guatemalan Genocide, 1978-1996• Fundación de Antropologia Forense de

Guatemala (FAFG)--9• USC Shoah Foundation--1

Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979• USC Shoah Foundation—5

25 Experience GroupsEuropean Holocaust/World War II era, 1939-1945

Jewish Survivors 51,310

Rescuer and Aid Providers 1,158

Liberators and Liberation Witnesses 429

Sinti and Roma Survivors 406

Political Prisoners 268

Miscellaneous (World War II) 154

Jehovah’s Witness Survivors 84

War Crimes Trial Participants 62

Non-Jewish Forced Laborers 14

Eugenics Policies Survivors 13

Homosexual Survivors 653,904

Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923• Armenian Film Foundation—333• USC Shoah Foundation—1

Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, 1994• Kigali Genocide Memorial--70• USC Shoah Foundation—15• Holocaust Museum Houston—1

Nanjing Massacre, 1937• USC Shoah Foundation—30

Guatemalan Genocide, 1978-1996• Fundación de Antropologia Forense de

Guatemala (FAFG)--9• USC Shoah Foundation—1

Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979• USC Shoah Foundation—5

40 languages represented

Arabic

15

Armenian

158

Bulgarian

624

Chinese

30

Croatian

393

Czech

560

Danish

67

Dutch

1,076

English

27,213

Flemish

5

French

1,905

German

924

Greek

318

Hebrew

6,280

Hungarian

1,348

Italian

433

Japanese

1

Khmer

2

Kinyarwanda

75

Kurdish

3

Ladino

9

Latvian

1

Lithuanian

46

Macedonian

9

Mandarin

30

Norwegian

34

Polish

1,515

Portuguese

560

Romani

24

Romanian

130

Russian

7,137

Serbian

384

Sign

5

Slovak

561

Slovenian

6

Spanish

1,362

Swedish

264

Turkish

14

Ukrainian

304

Yiddish

574

TOTAL

54,369

60+ countries representedArgentina 731Armenia14Australia 2,495Austria189Belarus246Belgium203Bolivia 23Bosnia & Herzegovina 55Brazil564Bulgaria628Canada 4,076Chile65Colombia15Costa Rica19Croatia327Czech Republic563Denmark94Ecuador9Estonia9Finland

1

France 1,658Georgia 6Germany 672Greece 324Guatemala 9Hungary 790Ireland 4Israel 8,459Italy 418Japan 1Kazakhstan 6Latvia 79Lebanon 4Lithuania 137Macedonia 9Mexico 111Moldova 284The Netherlands 1,046New Zealand 53Norway 34People’s Republic of China 30

Peru

2Poland

1,382Portugal

2Romania

147Russia

675Rwanda

73Slovakia

657Slovenia

11South Africa

250Spain

7Sweden

325Switzerland

69Syria

30Ukraine

3,427United Kingdom

871United States

21,251Uruguay

124Uzbekistan

25Venezuela

227Yugoslavia

346Zimbabwe

8

Breadth of coverage

Pre-WWII Period 1933–1938 20% of VHA

• Dictatorship under Hitler• Pre-war life in home country

and country of immigration

• Geographical locations• Early stages of persecution

& antisemitism• The first concentration

camps

Intra-War Period 1939–1945 60% of VHA

• World War II in Europe• Murder of the disabled• The Holocaust• Ghettos• Mobile killing squads• Victims of Nazi persecution• Jewish resistance • Non-Jewish resistance• Rescue• United States• Forced marches• Liberation

Post-WWII 1945-Present

20% of VHA

• Rescue and aid efforts

• War crime trials

• Displaced persons camps

• Emigration/Immigration

VHA demonstration screenshots

Quick Search results list

ProQuest Search in Segment

ProQuest primary source results

ProQuest content search filters

Full text search result for article or page

VHA transcripts

Transcript in German

More about transcripts and subtitles/closed captioning

• There are 910 German transcripts available now

• Approximately 1200 English transcripts will be available in 2017

• Transcripts will be in the language of the interview, and will not be translated

• There are subtitles/closed captioning for 49 Rwandan, 30 Nanjing, and 8 Armenian testimonies (more to come soon)

Filming the VHA: professional, worldwide volunteers

Professionally-trained videographers

Since 1999, the following basic equipment requirements have been necessary to tape the USC Shoah Foundation interviews:

• Professional Broadcast Camera w/ Betacam SP deck• Zoom Lens• Tripod w/Head• Monitor• Lowell Light Kit or equivalent• Soft Box or ability to create look of soft box• Batteries• Lavaliere (lapel microphone)• Boom Mic

Visual History ArchiveTeaching and Research

Appropriate for these course disciplines

• 540+ Courses Taught Using VHA in 25+ Disciplines

• 90+ Published Articles Citing the VHA

• 70+ Published Books Citing the VHA

• 60+ Dissertations Citing the VHA

Source: USC Shoah Foundation

Academic use of the Visual History Archive

Scholarly publication exampleThe United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945: Ghettos in German-Occupied Eastern Europe (Volume II)

• comprehensive account of how the Nazis conducted the Holocaust in scattered towns and villages of Poland and the Soviet Union

• covers 1,150+ sites, including both open and closed ghettos • regional essays outline the patterns of ghettoization in 19

German administrative regions. • key events in the history of the ghetto tell: living and working

conditions; activities of the Jewish Councils; Jewish responses to persecution; demographic changes; and details of the ghetto's liquidation

• personal testimonies convey the character of each ghetto• source citations provide a guide to additional information • shows hundreds of smaller sites―previously unknown or

overlooked in the historiography of the Holocaust

• An indispensable reference work on the destroyed Jewish communities of Eastern Europe.

Bundle themes

VHA bundle opportunities• PQIS: HNPs like Jerusalem Post, The

American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger (1857-1922), The American Israelite (1854-2000); The Jewish Advocate (1905-1990); Jewish Exponent (1887-1990)

• History Vault: New Deal, WWII, Immigration Records, Vietnam

• DNSA: Berlin, Soviet Era, China, El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala, U.S. Intelligence

• ASP: Human Rights Studies Online; Border and Migration Studies Online; Oral History Online; Disability in the Modern World

Etc.

Customer testimonials• “Oral testimonies provide essential historical and emotional truths about the

Holocaust.” • “Faculty from a range of disciplines are interested in furthering their research through

this archive.” • “All of us hope to complement our printed sources with these oral testimonies as we

write about history, language, economics, trauma studies, literature, and more. Many of us have also begun using these testimonies in the classroom, encouraging our students to delve into them in their own research.”

• “Seeing and hearing an individual who had actually witnessed the concentration camps had a powerful emotional impact on students and brought them closer to understanding the absolute monstrosity of the Holocaust.”

• “The Visual History Archive is a truly unique and extraordinary resource for education and research…The Archive is an unparalleled resource to students and faculty in many fields, but particularly to undergraduates studying the Holocaust and to graduate students in our new M.A. program in War and Society in the Department of History. The purchase of the perpetual license is yet another demonstration of Chapman University’s commitment to research.”

Supplementary VHA license terms

Authorized Users may create derivative materials for teaching purposes as part of courses offered by their subscribing institution and may post such materials to a virtual learning environment on the internet solely for the duration of the course. Notwithstanding 6(c ) of the Permitted Uses, only transcripts of the videos will be available for file delivery and local loading where a PAL has been purchased.

Thank you and learn more!• Check out the ProQuest VHA LibGuide:

http://proquest.libguides.com/visualhistoryarchive

• View the “VHA Story” video or download brochures at: https://sfi.usc.edu/pressroom/kit

• For additional information: globalmarketingqueries@proquest.com

• Contact your ProQuest Sales Specialistor Account Manager for pricing or to setup a free, 30-day trial today!