Union County Groups Launch Fundraiser to Digitize 220 At-Risk Oral Histories

Union County Historical Society, Bucknell University’s Bertrand Library and Union County’s America250PA Committee launched a "Sponsor a Story" fundraiser on February 4 to professionally digitize and preserve roughly 220 at-risk oral history recordings from the county’s Oral Traditions Project, which began in 1974. The drive aims to salvage fragile analog recordings before further deterioration makes them unusable and to broaden public access to first‑hand local accounts.

The recordings document decades of local experience and institutional memory. Organizers describe the materials as vulnerable to magnetic tape decay and format obsolescence, risks that put community stories and genealogical data at stake. Digitization is presented as a preventive investment: converting tapes into stable digital files can slow deterioration, reduce physical storage costs and open the material to researchers, classrooms and heritage tourism initiatives.

The fundraising campaign uses a sponsor-based model that ties donor support directly to individual recordings, an approach intended to make costs transparent and to attract a mix of small donors, civic groups and potential grant partners. For Union County, that model has two immediate economic implications: it crowdsources preservation funding rather than relying solely on public budgets, and it lays groundwork for future value capture through educational programming, archival research and local history exhibits that can draw visitors and student projects to the area.

Bucknell’s Bertrand Library will manage the technical workflow and long-term stewardship of the digital files, while the Union County Historical Society will guide selection priorities and community outreach. The America250PA Committee’s involvement links the project to broader statewide efforts to preserve and interpret the nation’s 250th anniversary-era materials, a potential avenue for additional matching funds or promotion.

Preserving these oral histories has longer-term policy relevance for local cultural infrastructure. Municipal archives and small historical societies nationwide face backlogs in digitization; Union County’s campaign illustrates one practical response that leverages university library capacity and targeted fundraising. Making recordings accessible also supports local education initiatives by providing primary sources for K-12 and university classes and helps families researching lineage or property histories.

For residents, the project promises two near-term benefits: the physical survival of 220 recorded memories and expanded public access to stories that shape Union County identity. The next steps are fundraising to reach the campaign target, completing professional digitization at Bertrand Library and establishing public access provisions for listening and research. If successful, the effort will convert fragile analog tapes into durable community assets that can be used by teachers, historians and residents for years to come.