How can historians use oral history

The Oral History Association offers several resources for you to learn about all facets of oral history. OHA also offers a series of publications on community oral history, family oral history, oral history and the law, and other subjects.

Oral history is all about making contact with people, so join us at our annual meeting and please join the Oral History Association. This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible.

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Oral history is a method of conducting historical research through recorded interviews between a narrator with personal experience of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of adding to the historical record. Because it is a primary source, an oral history is not intended to present a final, verified, or "objective" narrative of events, or a comprehensive history of a place, such as the UCSC campus. It is a spoken account, reflects personal opinion offered by the narrator, and as such it is subjective.

Oral histories may be used together with other primary sources as well as secondary sources to gain understanding and insight into history. Email a Librarian send us your questions directly.

Sign Up for a Consultation with a librarian by phone or Zoom. Creative Commons Attribution 3. University Library. Search form Search. Menu University Library. Oral History Research and Resources This guide provides resources on doing oral history research, locating oral histories in the UCSC Library and other libraries and institutions on the Central Coast of California and beyond, and oral history as a field.

End as you began, not with bombshells, but gently with lighter questions. Ask questions one at a time. Allow silence to work for you. Be a good listener, using body language such as looking at the interviewee, nodding, and smiling to encourage and give the message, "I am interested.

Ask for specific examples if the interviewee makes a general statement and you need to know more. Or you might say, "I don't understand. Could you explain that in more detail? For example, ask a horseman what he means by the shaft of the buggy. How was it used? What was its purpose? Rephrase and re-ask an important question several times, if you must, to get the full amount of information the interviewee knows. Unless you want one-word answers, phrase your questions so that they can't be answered with a simple "yes" or "no.

Find out not only what the person did, but also what she thought and felt about what she did. Ask follow-up questions and then ask some more. Be flexible. Watch for and pick up on promising topics introduced by the interviewee, even if the topics are not on your interview guide sheet. Life History Forms The life history form can contain very little or a great deal, depending on the project's purposes.

Release Forms Release forms can become rather full of legal-sounding language, but most oral historians manage to find a form with which they are comfortable. Interview Tracking Form.

Tracking Your Progress Depending on the project goals and archival plans, the paperwork can get quite involved or it can stay simple. Note of Encouragement At this point, some people feel overwhelmed. Pinpointing Problems in Your Interview The interviewee This interviewee is not about to let you deviate from his script. This person needs questions to get warmed up and more questions to keep going.

For instance, a modest woman might not feel comfortable talking to a male about birth experiences. The memories have a form other than linear time and you have to figure out how to allow the narrator to tell these memories in a way that makes sense to both teller and listener. The interviewer Were the people I interviewed the right ones for my research?

How did I prepare for the interview? Did I prepare enough? What did I use for equipment? Did it work satisfactorily? What changes should I make? What kinds of questions did I ask? What kinds of questions worked well? Not so well? Where did I conduct the interview? What in the environment affected my interview? Did my subject want to talk? How did I encourage my subject to talk? What "masks" did my subject wear? Did my subject drop the masks? When did I tell my subject the purpose of the interview and how it would be used?

Did my plans to use the interview seem to matter to the subject? How accurate were my subject's memories? How accurate was my subject's reporting of her memories? How do I know? Does it matter? Who controlled the interview? How did I feel while interviewing? How did my subject feel while being interviewed? Would it be useful and possible to return for another interview? How do these results affect my original goals? Do I need to adjust my research design? When I transcribe, will I write exactly what was said or will I begin light editing right from the start?

How will I decide what to write and what not to write? How can I ensure that the transcription is accurate? How can I ensure that the transcription reports what the subject wanted to say? Who owns the interview and has the right to decide how the completed interview and transcription will be used? Next time, what would I do the same? What would I do differently? Washington, DC: Library of Congress, Baum, Willa K. Oral History for the Local Historical Society.

Transcribing and Editing Oral History. Brecher, Jeremy. Buckendorf, Madeline, and Laurie Mercier. Pamphlet Series 4. Albuqueque: Oral History Association, Dunaway, David K. Baum, eds. Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Gluck, Sherna Berger, and Daphne Patai, eds. New York: Routledge, Ives, Edward D. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, Jackson, Bruce.

Urbana: University of Illinois Press, Neuenschwander, John. Oral History and the Law. Pamphlet Series 1. Oral History: An Introduction for Students.

Lanman, Barry A. Oral History in the Secondary School Classroom. Pamphlet Series 2. Los Angeles: Oral History Association, Sitton, Thad, George L. Mehaffy, and O. Davis, Jr. Austin: University of Austin Press: Wigginton, Eliot, ed. The Foxfire Book. Garden City, N. Brady, John. The Craft of Interviewing. New York: Vintage Books, Oral History: From Tape to Type.

Chicago: American Library Association, Deering, Mary Jo, and Barbara Pomeroy. Transcribing Without Tears. Frisch, Michael. Summer , Grele, Ronald J. Envelopes of Sound: the Art of Oral History. New York: Praeger, Gordon, Raymond L. Interviewing: Strategy, Techniques, and Tactics. Homewood: Dorsey Press, Jolly, Brad. Videotaping Local History.