| Contact the Center of Southwest Studies |
Oral History Project Sequence
1. Plan. Organize advisory board; set achievable goals for project; develop budget; identify and obtain funding; accumulate research materials; locate related projects; select and obtain equipment; assemble personnel; develop chronology of pertinent events; develop list of potential narrators.
2. Select narrators. Prioritize desired order of interviewing. Send a letter or an email inviting participation of those soon to be interviewed. Follow with a phone call to schedule (pre-)interview.
3. Prepare for interviewing. Research for the particular interview(s). Outline discussion topics (not a canned list of questions) and send copy of interview outline to narrator if appropriate. Assemble needed items (see Oral History Pre-interview Checklist). Refresh your memory by re-reading the Oral History Interview Guidelines. Pre-record your interview introduction.
4. Pre-interview visit, if possible. Scope out the setting for seating, possible distractions, and electrical outlets. Introduce yourself and get to know the narrator better. Discuss topics (but no details of information!) for interview. Inquire about the existence of historically significant records which could refresh the memory.
5. Remind your narrator of the taping session a few days before scheduled event, by phone or note.
6. Interview session, 1-1½ hours. Complete biographical questionnaire & release form.
7. Archive one or more copies of interview tape. Label each tape with names of narrator and interviewer, date, and length of interview. Poke out the two plastic tabs at the back of the recorded cassette.
8. Describe the interview(s). Compile an abstract or tape index or verbatim transcript (original and at least one copy).
9. Audit the transcript. Check transcript with taped interview, and enter corrections on pc file. Add full-name designations. Note questions for additional interview sessions, if any.
10. Submit your transcript to the narrator for corrections, additions. Conclude legal agreement: contract, statement of gift, or release. Solicit donations of other records to the repository.
11. Final editing. Note narrator's changes on all copies of transcript, using footnotes to indicate changes (only correct the transcript where it failed to convey what was said on tape). Proofread; spell-check; use standardized institutional format for transcript with all the components: title page, table of contents, program statement, vita of interviewer, vita of narrator and/or copy of completed biographical questionnaire, legal page, transcript, index, and any appendices.
12. Photocopy the final transcript: make reference copy(s) and copy for narrator. The unbound original of all printed materials (all completed forms, corrected draft(s) of transcript, and final transcript--loose pages) goes into an archival file folder labeled with name of project, name of narrator, name of interviewer, date(s) of interview(s), and length of interview(s).
13. Package the transcript copies. If appropriate, send final transcript to bindery: library binding for reference copy (or multiple copies), hard cover or spiral bound for narrator.
14. Accession and catalog the oral history tape(s) and printed materials. Enter the interview data from step 12 into a new record in the Oralhistory.mdb database using Microsoft Access, because the Center's oral history web page generator derives the website description of the interviews from this source. Deliver the narrator's copy.
15. Celebrate!
Sources:
SW-37
Center of
Southwest Studies home
Page last modified: March 01, 2004