Photo: Christopher Robbins
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Sites to See: Compiling Oral Histories
Learn how to take on an oral history project.
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Unless we preserve our memories, much of our history may be lost from future generations. Before it's too late, grab a pen and pad, a tape recorder or video camera, and start taking notes.
History One Word and One Step at a Time
Web site guides you through process
Just do it! That's the advice of DoHistory.org. The Web site includes a step-by-step guide to help you compile an oral history.
The site's useful tools help you start research and formulate questions. It includes a checklist of interviewing techniques, such as giving the person time to think before answering, starting with easy questions to evoke essay-type answers, and gradually building to more probing inquiries. Another checklist helps you pinpoint interview problems, while yet another helps you analyze the interview after the fact, with an eye to improving next time.
The site includes a bibliography and links to folklore and history sites to help with your research and preparation.
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Tell It Like It Was
Oral history preserves memories
What is unique about any oral history is the story and the way it is told. Read and listen to what others have done, and learn from the successes.
Newsweek has compiled links to several oral history collections, including an online anthology of slave narratives, remembrances of holocaust survivors, and an oral history archive of World War II.
The Newsweek site will teach you how to tell your own story. It also includes activities to help you understand and analyze oral histories.
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Go Back to School for Oral Histories
An experience for all ages
Oral histories differ from history in that they're based more on interpretation of personal experiences than on fact, says the University of Texas at San Antonio Web site.
Although the site is intended for use by teachers, you can use its handouts to guide you through your own project or to work with community groups to create a history of your city or town.
The site provides instructional plans, permission slips, interviewing and topic selection guidelines, a bibliography, and links to oral history resources.
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From the Technical Side
Site offers advice on recording equipment
You can capture oral histories by transcribing the spoken word. But to capture feelings and emotions, you may want to record stories electronically. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers offers some advice on choosing equipment.
The site discusses video and audio recordings. Follow their recommendations for format and equipment, and choose what's right for you and your budget.
Whether you're using a video or audio recorder, the site offers technique tips: for example, use a tripod and avoid mini-cassette or reel-to-reel machines.
The site tells you what to use if you rent, rather than buy, equipment. It also suggests you check with your local university or businesses about low-cost rental or free use of facilities.
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Pop the Right Questions to Paint a Family History
A guide to getting the information that matters
Each oral history is as unique as the subject matter or family who creates it. Learn to ask the right questions to get family members to share their life experiences.
Genealogy.com provides lists of queries that help you elicit childhood experiences, family traditions, and the adventures of growing up.
You might throw in a few of their sample questions about your subject's hometown, occupation, or what he/she remembers of grandparents and great-grandparents. The site's list of conversation-starters includes, "When did you leave home?," "How did that change your life," and "Were you scared?"
Long on ideas, the site recommends you inquire about wars, natural disasters, and political changes as well as family pets, favorite songs, and family recipes—the sky's the limit.
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These links are provided for informational purposes only.
AARP does not endorse, and has no control over or responsibility
for, the linked sites or the content, advertisements, materials,
products, or services available on or throughout these sites.
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