The Legislative Reference Bureau has begun work on the Wisconsin Legislative Oral History Project. The project will include recorded interviews with former members of the Wisconsin Legislature, conducted by John Powell, the former Capitol reporter for Wisconsin Public Radio.
The goal of the project is to record the oral histories of as many former legislators as possible; the purpose is to learn from the interviews how the legislature functions as a forum for determining public policy, what enables it to work well, and what prevents it from functioning better.
Each interview is about two hours long. The LRB will publish the entire series on DVDs and will eventually make them available as streaming video from their Web site. Brief excerpts are already viewable at the LRB’s YouTube channel.
Thanks to LRB Chief, Steve Miller for sharing the news.