Conducting an Oral History Interview

            Last post I talked briefly about the technological changes in the recording oral history interviews.  As I mentioned this was a part of a program on oral histories sponsored by the Society of American Archivists and held at the University of Texas at Dallas.  The remainder of the program dealt with suggestions for conducting a good interview.  First and most important is articulation of a clear goal or purpose for the interview.  What do you want to learn and record from the individual you will be interviewing?  It could be learning about their family history, their experiences say in World War II, their experiences within a specific organization, whatever.  Once you’ve determined a goal for the interview then it’s time to do some homework.  Read about the topic.   What is the early history of an area, what are stories from a war or of a company? Homework is important.

            After you have some idea of what you want to know about and have done your homework about the subject then it’s time to list some questions related to the topic.  This will facilitate the interview and help you to clarify your own thinking.  Find out about the person you are interviewing and try to establish some rapport when you set up for the interview.  Sometimes people are nervous in front of a microphone so a comfortable relationship between the interviewer and interviewee is important.  Be sure you are familiar with your recording equipment and that it is working properly (take backups of memory cards and connections). Begin with an introduction including who will be interviewed and by whom, when, where.  The presenter also always asks for the interviewee’s birth date and includes that in the introduction.  He says he records this introductory information even before he gets to the interview. 

            Remember you are there to facilitate the interview not to dominate it. Don’t interrupt the interviewee.  Do ask open-ended questions. Do steer the conversation back if the interviewee wanders away from the topic. 

            Get a signed release form that includes digitization.  Be prepared.  Watch the “ums” and “ahs” or other annoying speech habits you may have.  They are most irritating for the listener, particularly a transcriber like me.

Have fun and learn lots.

Oral Histories and Technology

            Two weeks I went to a one-day training course dealing with oral history sponsored by the Society of American Archivists and held in the library of the University of Texas at Dallas.  The speaker, Fred Calabretta, is the curator and oral historian from the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut.  In his presentation he divided the topic of oral histories into two overarching areas: 1) conducting a good interview and (2) changes in technology for recording the interview.  (Unfortunately there are no real changes to the technology for transcription. I asked. Sigh!  Voice recognition software is simply not sophisticated enough yet.)

            I was most interested in the changes to technology.  As you know if you have read my previous blog thoughts that I have been working mostly with audiocassette tapes, which can have some real issues.  Now, of course, we have advanced to memory cards providing at least 630 megabytes per hour of recording. You can even record interviews on your smart phone although the quality is not quite there yet.  If you decide to go that route, make sure you have output and mike input capability.  The built in mike on smart phones isn’t good enough according to the presenter.  Also make sure you have an app on your phone to control the recording.  Check out Rode Rec for that. With apps you can, of course, record directly to your computer although external noise from the computer may cause a problem.

 Instead of IOS devices the presenter recommended a memory card recorder with external microphones - an XLR connection for the mike is best.  The recorder he mentioned specifically was a Marantz, which costs between $400-700.  Good external microphones are essential - generally the more expensive the better.  Bose, Sony and others make quality products.  There are several types - unidirectional (Cardioid), omni-directional, Lavaliere (clip-ons), and wireless.  Unidirectional will limit extraneous noise, but everyone must stay in one place. Omni-directional may be the most versatile as far as settings are concerned unless there is a lot of extraneous outside noise.  You decide.

            The most important thing to remember with digital recordings is that they are not permanent.  You MUST MAKE BACK UPS sooner rather than later.  He recommends gold CDs and external hard drives.  Audio files should be preserved in non-compresson WAV format. Be prepared to update the files whenever the preservation technology changes.  Remember those floppy disks? No, well that’s why you need to update.

Next time - preparing for oral histories

Vacuuming the Archive

 Vacuums I have loved

            Welcome to the world of archival and museum quality vacuums.  Isn’t that just what you wanted to talk about today? Anyway I am in love with this vacuum and I wanted to share.  This is the Nilfisk vacuum made in Denmark - or at least that’s where corporate headquarters are.  This vacuum was made especially for museums. Pricey, but well worth the money.  It is a hepa filtered vacuum with variable speeds so that you can adjust the suction.  That’s important if you are cleaning delicate items like textiles or in my case vellum architectural drawings. (architectural vellum, which is paper coated in a resin, as opposed to calfskin vellum).

            Anyway back to the vacuum.  All sorts of fun attachments come with the vacuum.  These are some of the small ones, which can be used for tiny crevices or for further decreasing the amount of suction.  What more could you ask for? It almost makes vacuuming fun and the super heavy filtering system makes it much safer for those of us with allergies than regular hepa vacs.

            The way you vacuum delicate material in a museum or archive setting is through a screen placed over the material and then using a up and down motion you work your way across the material.  Never push or pull like you would if you were vacuuming floors.  That would weaken threads.  It is tedious, but it does work.

Reference, Public Programming and the Archivist

        The last two important duties that I and others have listed as archivist's tasls are answering reference questions and developing educational programming about the archive and its collections.  These are the same duties undertaken by a librarian and by museum curators for much the same reasons.  Since archivists are the people most familiar with the collections, they logically are the ones to direct a researcher in search of primary documentation.  They are also the ones to undertake the research necessary to write a finding aid. Other research is directed to answering questions either submitted on line or by visitors to the archive.  That’s a brief introduction to the reference duty, my favorite task by the way.  I enjoy research.

            Public programming relies on research to be effective.  Programming can take many different paths.  Certainly exhibits are one avenue.  Classes in the use of primary documentation for research is another type of program offered by an archive.  Tours of the facility and introduction to the steps needed to access archival material are other types of outreach.  Some archivists give lectures or write press releases.  With the advent of the internet whole other ways of communication to the public have opened.  Most archives today maintain a website, a twitter account, are on facebook, and maintain a blog.  The archival world is really changing.  What once had been a haven for only university researchers is now open to the world through the web.  It’s great.