Center for Oral History > Links

Links

Guidelines for Oral History Interviews, The History Channel
Here are instructions (automatically downloaded in pdf format) for students on how to do an oral history interview. The student workbook covers picking an interview topic and someone to interview, preparing for the interview, writing interview questions, interview tips, conducting the interview, and class activities. Includes fill-in-the-blank forms and worksheets. Adapted from Michael Gatto.

History Matters: Making Sense of Oral History, American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, City University of New York and Center for History and New Media, George Mason University
This guide by historian Linda Shopes presents “an overview of oral history and ways historians use it, tips on what questions to ask when reading or listening to oral history interviews, a sample interpretation of an interview, an annotated bibliography, and a guide to finding and using oral history online.”

H-Oralhist, H-Net and Michigan State University
H-Oralhist is a network for scholars and professionals in the field of oral history. This site features an extensive list of oral history resources, including oral history methods, centers, conferences, organizations, projects, teacher resources, sound files, Oral History Association guidelines, and message logs from H-Oralhist e-mail discussions. Look for featured oral history websites and a link to oral history bibliographies.

How to Do Oral History on Video, Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and Bristol Productions
Designed for teachers, this web page offers tutorials in pdf format on conducting a videotaped oral history interview, equipment needed, how to set up, how to interview, and sample questions. The site’s home page, The Voices of WWII, points to lesson plans and ideas, details on a World War II video, World War II interview transcripts, and links.

In the First Person, Alexander Street Press
Index of nearly 4,000 oral history collections in English from around the world. Keyword search of full text of 18,000 individual interviews. Database also points to thousands of audio and video files and bibliographic records.

Institute for Oral History, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
The Oral History Workshop on the Web, including “Introduction to Oral History” and “Transcribing Style Guide,” is located here.

Matrix, Michigan State University
Tutorial on audio technology: microphones, recording techniques, recording devices, processing, and analysis and delivery.

Oral Historian’s Toolbox, Concordia University
A directory with reviews of open-source and proprietary tools for managing and sharing oral history research. Categories include: indexing and databases; online content management and web delivery; digital storytelling—slide shows with content; GPS, GIS and mapping; voice to text; audio and video editing; apps; augmented reality; qualitative analysis tools; word clouds; social media tools; and other (e.g., barcode and transcription software).

Oral History Association
The Oral History Association web site provides information on membership, annual meetings, committees, publications, and awards, as well as links to other sites. The revised “Oral History Evaluation Guidelines” text is available here. Pamphlets available for sale include “Oral History and the Law,” “Oral History Projects in Your Classroom,” and “Using Oral History in Community History Projects.” Recent additions are a wiki--a place to find and share oral history resources--and a social network for oral historians.

The Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
ROHO has preserved oral history transcripts on twentieth-century history in California and the nation. The site features the ROHO catalog, “Tips for Conducting an Oral History,” “The One-Minute Guide to Oral History,” and the Donated Oral History Program. Ohonline allows access to searchable transcripts covering various subject areas, including The Suffragists Oral History Project, Disability Rights and Independent Living Movement, and Medicine, Science, Biotechnology and Public Health.

Resources for Digital Storytelling, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Resources for digital storytelling (personal narratives in which the author reflects on a life experience). Digital storytelling techniques are used in classrooms as a means of self-expression and developing digital literacy skills.

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
Comprehensive guide and sample forms for conducting interviews with family and community members. A cultural education resources page includes links to more guides, lesson plans, videos and dvds, recordings, and other cultural heritage education tools.

Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The focus of the Southern Oral History Program is the American South—its “history, culture, problems, and prospects.” A resources page offers a downloadable practical guide, sample forms, and bibliography.

Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History, Film Study Center, Harvard University
A detailed, practical guide to collecting oral histories by historian/educator Judith Moyer. Includes guidelines, paperwork, issues, bibliography, and links. This guide is only one section of an interactive website exploring how history is pieced together using a variety of sources.

The T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History, Louisiana State University Libraries Special Collections
The mission of the Center is to conduct, collect, preserve, and make available to scholars oral histories on Louisiana's social, political, and cultural history. Sample interview questions, interviewee/interviewer release forms, a biographical data form, and an oral history project budget are available on the website. Partial .pdfs of their "Talking Gumbo: Curriculum Guide to Incorporating Oral History in the Classroom" and "Workshop Packet" are also listed. The Center has a comprehensive links page.

Tell Me Your Stories, Living Legacies Historical Foundation
“An oral history curriculum for high schools and middle schools involving students with their family and community.” This site includes an online curriculum, supporting materials (including a video for purchase at cost, downloadable handouts, and weblinks), sample projects, and frequently asked questions.

WPA Life Histories Home Page, Library of Congress
The U.S. Works Progress Administration collection of life histories from 1936-1940 is showcased here. A lesson plan utilizing oral histories is also available.

Hawai‘i Links

Exploring the History of Maunalua, Ann Marie Kirk, Blue Crater Media
Clicking on names on an interactive map leads to images, video, and stories of Maunalua (east O‘ahu).

The Hawai‘i Nisei Story, University of Hawai‘i
This website focuses on the experiences of Hawai‘i’s Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA), from the early decades of the twentieth century, through World War II, the postwar era, and the present. It features synopses of each life history interview, video clips, transcript excerpts, supplemental material, and links to related sites and sources. This is a collaboration between the University of Hawai‘i’s Center for Oral History and Kapi‘olani Community College and Hawai‘i nisei veterans.

Hawaiian Historical Society
The Hawaiian Historical Society, founded in 1892, preserves materials and publishes research on Hawai‘i and Pacific history. Their Hawai‘i History Moments page features short essays, from adding machines to zoos, on Hawai‘i’s colorful history.

HawaiiHistory.org, Hukilau Network
Hawai‘i history is the focus of this site, which is sectioned into ancient history, Hawai‘i timeline, library (historical features and stories), and photo gallery.

Living Voices, National Museum of the American Indian
Sound profiles, approximately four minutes long in QuickTime, of Native Hawaiians and Native Americans.

Oral Histories, Go For Broke Educational Foundation
Videotaped interviews with Japanese American World War II veterans from Hawai‘i and elsewhere are located here. Sample clips are freely accessible, but registration and a password are required for viewing the full-length videos.

Women and Work in Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Women’s Heritage Project, Women’s Studies Program, University of Hawai‘i
This is a slideshow of the exhibit “Into the Marketplace,” featuring photographs and oral histories of working women, including excerpts from COH oral histories.

World War II Internment in Hawai‘i, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i
This site deals with the World War II incarceration experience within the islands of Hawai‘i.