"Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews."
The study of personal narratives and memories that provide insight into historical events and experiences.
Introduction to Oral History: An overview of what oral history is and its importance in preserving the history of individuals and groups.
Interviewing Techniques: Strategies for conducting effective interviews with oral history subjects involving creating a comfortable environment, asking open-ended questions, and active listening.
Ethics and Legal Issues: Guidelines for handling ethical and legal issues related to interviewing, consent, and permission when it comes to oral history.
Research Design: Developing a research design is important for framing your research questions and objectives, planning the scope of your research, and determining who to interview and how.
Transcription and Analysis: The process of transcribing oral history recordings and analyzing the content to gain insights about the interviewee's experiences, knowledge, and perspective.
Archiving and Preservation: Strategies for preserving and archiving oral history recordings like the use of appropriate equipment, digitization, and storage methods.
Memory and Narrative Theory: Understanding the role of memory and the narrative form in shaping the oral history interviewee's experiences and contributing to the creation of their personal narrative.
Oral History In Community: Oral history offers a powerful tool for understanding and sharing the stories and history of communities as diverse as ethnic and religious groups, political movements, and social organizations.
Technology in Oral History: How technology has revolutionized the recording, transcribing, and preservation of oral history content.
Oral History and Public Memory: The role of oral history in shaping public memory, creating a dialogue between communities, and promoting intergenerational understanding.
"These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations."
"Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources."
"Knowledge presented by Oral History (OH) is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions, and understanding of the interviewee in its primary form."
"To preserve memories and perceptions of past events for future generations as an aural record."
"Often preserved in archives and large libraries."
"In Western society, the use of oral material goes back to the early Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, both of whom made extensive use of oral reports from witnesses."
"The modern concept of oral history was developed in the 1940s by Allan Nevins and his associates at Columbia University."
"Primitive societies have long relied on oral tradition to preserve a record of the past in the absence of written histories."
"Professional historians usually consider oral tradition to be any information about past events that witnesses told anybody else."
"Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews."
"Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives and most of these cannot be found in written sources."
"Knowledge presented by Oral History (OH) is unique in that it shares the tacit perspective, thoughts, opinions, and understanding of the interviewee in its primary form."
"These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events, and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations."
"Oral history complements written histories by providing a different source of information, often capturing details and perspectives not found in written sources."
"Preserving oral history data ensures that memories and perspectives of past events are not lost and can be accessed by future generations."
"Oral history enhances our understanding of the past by incorporating personal experiences and subjective accounts, which offer unique insights into historical events."
"Oral history interviews are often preserved in archives and large libraries."
"The early Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides made extensive use of oral reports from witnesses."
"The primary objective of oral history is to collect and study historical information about people, families, important events, or everyday life using various mediums."