Preserving the Obama inaugural

Last update: January 2, 2009 - 7:42 PM

The Library of Congress' American Folklife Center is soliciting churches, synagogues, mosques and others for videotapes and audiotapes of sermons or speeches given Jan. 16-25 that focus on the significance of the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama as the country's first black president.

"If a historian asks, 'How did Americans react to Obama's inauguration,' we'll have immediate responses to this powerful event," said Dr. David A. Taylor, head of research and programs at the American Folklife Center.

It's the first time the library has gathered this sort of material from a U.S. presidential inauguration. Taylor says the project is especially timely -- with the inauguration coming a day after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Contributors also are encouraged to provide written texts, photographs or church programs. The collection will be open to public. Some of the material will be posted online.

"They will be snapshots of people's reactions to this event," Taylor said. "It's a rare special documentation that can never be obtained again because it's of that moment."

The center's online archives can be seen at www.loc.gov/folklife/onlinecollections.html.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

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