Occupy Wall Street Audio Collection
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Occupy Wall Street Audio Collection consists of digital audio recordings collected by members of the Occupy Wall Street Think Tank and other Occupy Wall Street (OWS) groups in late 2011 and early 2012, oral histories of OWS members conducted by Rachel Goodfriend in 2011, as well as a spreadsheet documenting different metadata about video recordings of OWS actions. The audio recordings consist of Think Tank sessions and oral histories of OWS members. The Think Tank was an open discussion group that met daily at Zuccotti Park and other locations in New York City from noon to 6:00pm daily to discuss topics related to the OWS movement from November 2011 to early 2012. Think Tank topics include justice, political and economic systems, reorganization of OWS small groups, police activity in Zuccotti Park, and the future of the OWS movement. The oral histories provide detailed information about the lives of OWS members before the movement, their reasons for joining the movement, and their experiences at Zuccotti Park.
Historical note
The Occupy Wall Street Think Tank was an open discussion group that met daily at Zuccotti Park and other locations in New York City from noon to 6:00pm daily to discuss topics related to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement from late 2011 to early 2012. The discussion groups were open to all and were facilitated by members of the Think Tank. Anyone could suggest a topic for discussion. Topics included justice, political and economic systems, reorganization of OWS small groups, police activity in Zuccotti Park, and the future of the OWS movement.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in two series, Series I. Think Tank Recordings and Files, and Series II. Oral Histories. Series I. is arranged in alphabetical order by type of material and in chronological order within the recordings. Series II. is arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the narrator.
Scope and Contents
The Occupy Wall Street Audio Collection consists of digital audio recordings collected by members of the Occupy Wall Street Think Tank and other Occupy Wall Street (OWS) groups in late 2011 and early 2012, oral histories of OWS members conducted by Rachel Goodfriend in 2011, as well as a spreadsheet documenting different metadata about video recordings of OWS actions. The audio recordings consist of Think Tank sessions and oral histories of OWS members. Think Tank topics include justice, political and economic systems, reorganization of OWS small groups, police activity in Zuccotti Park, and the future of the OWS movement. The oral histories provide detailed information about the lives of OWS members before the movement, their reasons for joining the movement, and their experiences at Zuccotti Park.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
The Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives has no information about copyright ownership for this collection and is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from it. Materials in this collection, which were created in 2011-2012, are expected to enter the public domain in 2131.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Occupy Wall Street Audio Collection; TAM.598; item identifier; Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
No information was recorded about the acquisition of this material. The accession number associated with this collection is 2012.006.
Custodial History
The audio recordings of the oral histories were stored by Tamiment staff on Soundcloud. These recordings were downloaded by Archival Collections Management staff in 2020 and transferred to Research Workspace.
The audio recordings of the Think Tank discussions were collected with the cooperation of the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, who provided digital recorders to OWS members. The oral histories were conducted by Rachel Goodfriend, a Tamiment Library student worker.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted. An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.
About this Guide
Processing Information
One hard drive was forensically imaged and mounted to the Research Workspace (RWS) and four thumb drives were forensically imaged, analyzed, and arranged in Forensic Toolkit (FTK). In RWS, directories were created for each oral history narrator and audio recordings associated with each narrator were moved to the correct directory. In FTK, files were arranged by date of recording and bookmarks were created for each date. Archival objects were created in ArchivesSpace for each bookmark in FTK and each directory in RWS. Digital objects were created to represent the files in the bookmarks and directories and were attached to the correct archival object in ArchivesSpace.
New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.
Repository
Series I. Think Tank Recordings and Files, 2011-2012, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
This series contains digital audio recordings of Think Tank discussions and a spreadsheet containing metadata on video recordings about OWS. Material in this series dates from November 2011 to January 2012.
The Think Tank discussion topics include justice, power, demands of OWS, supplies needed by OWS, alternative currency and spending money within OWS, reorganization of small working groups, smaller Occupy movements at colleges and universities in New York City (NYC), collaboration with other OWS movements across the country, Liberty Park (OWS's name for Zuccotti Park) as a microcosm of society, public figures at OWS, different economic systems for the United States (US), new media in elections, negative portrayal of OWS by/in media and what to do about it, tax havens, minority involvement in OWS, police activity in Zuccotti Park, barriers to the OWS movement, next steps for OWS in spreading through NYC and US, the future of the movement after November 15, 2011 and getting more people involved, how to influence the system without being a part of the system, ways to disrupt/interrupt provocateurs, and whether or not capitalism is a viable economic system. Other recordings include audio from marches in lower Manhattan and OWS working group discussions in other parts of Manhattan and in Staten Island. Some of the Think Tank recordings include the protocols for discussions, including the hand signals used by OWS.
The spreadsheet contains metadata about 83 video recordings, which includes YouTube links for each video. The videos document marches and other OWS events and contain news stories created by major US and foreign media organizations and small online media sites.
Arrangement
This series is arranged in alphabetical order by type of material and in chronological order within the recordings.
Recordings -- November 7, 2011, 2011-11-07
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 10, 2011, 2011-11-10
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 11, 2011, 2011-11-11
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 12, 2011, 2011-11-12
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 13, 2011, 2011-11-13
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 18, 2011, 2011-11-18
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 19, 2011, 2011-11-19
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 20, 2011, 2011-11-20
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 21, 2011, 2011-11-21
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 22, 2011, 2011-11-22
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 26, 2011, 2011-11-26
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 27, 2011, 2011-11-27
Digital materials
Recordings -- November 28, 2011, 2011-11-28
Digital materials
Recordings -- December 2, 2011, 2011-12-02
Digital materials
Recordings -- December 3, 2011, 2011-12-03
Digital materials
Recordings -- December 4, 2011, 2011-12-04
Digital materials
Recordings -- December 16, 2011, 2011-12-16
Digital materials
Recordings -- December 17, 2011, 2011-12-17
Digital materials
Recordings -- December 22, 2011, 2011-12-22
Digital materials
Recordings -- January 7, 2012, 2012-01-07
Digital materials
Recordings -- Undated, Undated, inclusive
Digital materials
Video spreadsheet, 2011-12-06
Digital materials
Series II. Oral Histories, 2011
Extent
Scope and Contents
This series consists of four digital audio recordings of oral history interviews with OWS members conducted by Tamiment Library student worker Rachel Goodfriend in late 2011. The narrators discuss their early lives and families, what they were doing immediately before coming to Zuccotti Park and joining OWS, their reasons for joining OWS, their thoughts about the political and economic systems in the US, and the future of the movement.
Arrangement
This series is arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the narrator.
