"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."
Strategies for conducting effective interviews with oral history subjects involving creating a comfortable environment, asking open-ended questions, and active listening.
Ethics: Understanding ethical considerations in conducting oral history interviews, including issues such as informed consent, confidentiality, and transparency.
Research: Understanding the importance of research when preparing for an oral history interview, including the need to identify potential interviewees, gather background information, and become familiar with the topic or subject.
Interviewing Strategies: Developing effective strategies for conducting oral history interviews, including open-ended questioning, active listening, and creating a comfortable environment for the interviewee.
Interviewing Techniques: Exploring different approaches to conducting oral history interviews, such as chronological, thematic, and biographical interviews.
Recording and Technical Considerations: Understanding the technical aspects of recording an oral history interview, including the use of recording equipment, storage and preservation methods, and digital file formats.
Analysis and Interpretation: Developing skills in analyzing and interpreting oral history interviews, including how to identify recurring themes, evaluate sources, and interpret meaning.
Oral History Projects: Understanding the different types of oral history projects, including individual collections, community-based initiatives, and institutional collections, and their respective purposes, goals, and challenges.
Editing and Presentation: Exploring methods for editing and presenting oral history interviews, including the use of transcripts, visuals, and multimedia formats.
Cultural and Social Contexts: Understanding the role of cultural and social contexts in shaping the content and meaning of oral history interviews, including issues of race, gender, class, and power.
Case Studies and Examples: Examining case studies and examples of successful oral history projects, including their methodologies, impact, and contributions to scholarship and public knowledge.
Structured Interviews: These interviews follow a specific set of questions that are asked to all participants. The questions are designed to gather specific information and can be used for research purposes.
Unstructured Interviews: These interviews are more free-form and allow the interviewer to follow the conversation where it leads. The questions are usually open-ended and designed to encourage participants to share their personal experiences and feelings.
Semi-Structured Interviews: These interviews are a combination of structured and unstructured interviews. The interviewer has a set of questions to ask, but is also free to ask follow-up questions as needed.
Group Interviews: These interviews are conducted with multiple participants at once. They can be structured or unstructured, and are often used for research purposes.
Telephone Interviews: These interviews are conducted over the phone and are often used in situations where face-to-face interviews are not possible.
Video Interviews: These interviews are conducted via video chat services like Skype or Zoom. They can be used in situations where the interviewer and participant are in different locations or where face-to-face interviews are not possible.
Panel Interviews: These interviews involve multiple interviewers conducting an interview with a single participant. They are often used in job interviews and other situations where multiple perspectives are needed.
Behavioral Interviews: These interviews focus on a candidate's past behavior and actions to predict their future behavior in a particular role.
Stress Interviews: These interviews are designed to stress out the candidate to see how they handle pressure and difficult situations.
Case Interviews: These interviews involve presenting a real or hypothetical business problem and asking the candidate to provide solutions.
Informational Interviews: These interviews are used by job seekers to gather information about a particular industry or company.
Exit Interviews: These interviews are conducted when an employee is leaving a company, to gather information about their experience and reasons for leaving.
Diagnostic Interviews: These interviews are used in counseling and therapy to gather information about a client's history and current situation.
Interrogation Interviews: These interviews are conducted by law enforcement to gather information about a crime or investigation. They can involve a variety of techniques, including deception and manipulation.
"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."