Through oral history and life history, researchers are able to gain a deeper understanding of a historical experience. Oral history involves interviewing people about their historical lived experiences. Similar methodologies include narrative analysis and biography.
Doing Oral History by
Doing Oral History is considered the premier guidebook to oral history, used by professional oral historians, public historians, archivists, and genealogists as a core text in college courses and throughout the public history community. Over the past decades, the development of digital audioand video recording technology has continued to alter the practice of oral history, making it even easier to produce quality recordings and to disseminate them on the Internet. This basic manual offers detailed advice on setting up an oral history project, conducting interviews, making videorecordings, preserving oral history collections in archives and libraries, and teaching and presenting oral history.Using the existing QandA format, the third edition asks new questions and augments previous answers with new material, particularly in these areas: 1. Technology: As before, the book avoids recommending specific equipment, but weighs the merits of the types of technology available for audio and video recording, transcription, preservation, and dissemination. Information about web sites is expanded, and more discussion is provided about howother oral history projects have posted their interviews online. 2. Teaching: The new edition addresses the use of oral history in online teaching. It also expands the discussion of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) with the latest information about compliance issues. 3. Presentation: Once interviews have been conducted, there are many opportunities for creative presentation. There is much new material available on innovative forms of presentation developed over the last decade, including interpretive dance and other public performances. 4. Legal considerations: The recent Boston College case, in which the courts have ruled that Irish police should have access to sealed oral history transcripts, has re-focused attention on the problems of protecting donor restrictions. The new edition offers case studies from the past decade. 5. Theory and Memory: As a beginner's manual, Doing Oral History has not dealt extensively with theoretical issues, on the grounds that these emerge best from practice. But the third edition includes the latest thinking about memory and provides a sample of some of the theoretical issuessurrounding oral sources. It will include examples of increased studies into catastrophe and trauma, and the special considerations these have generated for interviewers. 6. Internationalism: Perhaps the biggest development in the past decade has been the spreading of oral history around the world, facilitated in part by the International Oral History Association. New oral history projects have developed in areas that have undergone social and political upheavals,where the traditional archives reflect the old regimes, particularly in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The third edition includes many more references to non-U.S. projects that will still be relevant to an American audience.These changes make the third edition of Doing Oral History an even more useful tool for beginners, teachers, archivists, and all those oral history managers who have inherited older collections that must be converted to the latest technology.
Oral History Manual by
The Oral History Manual is designed to help anyone interested in doing oral history research to think like an oral historian. Recognizing that oral history is a research methodology, the authors define oral history and then discuss the methodology in the context of the oral history life cycle - the guiding steps that take a practitioner from idea through access/use. They examine how to articulate the purpose of an interview, determine legal and ethical parameters, identify narrators and interviewers, choose equipment, develop budgets and record-keeping systems, prepare for and record interviews, care for interview materials, and use the interview information. In this third edition, in addition to new information on methodology, memory, technology, and legal options incorporated into each chapter, a completely new chapter provides guidelines on how to analyze interview content for effective use of oral history interview information. The Oral History Manual provides an updated and expanded road map and a solid introduction to oral history for all oral history practitioners, from students to community and public historians.
Recording Oral History by
Recording Oral History, now available in its third edition, provides a comprehensive guide to oral history for researchers and students in diverse fields including history, sociology, anthropology, education, psychology, social work, and ethnographic methods. Writing in a clear, accessible style, Valerie Yow builds on the foundations laid in prior editions of her widely used and highly regarded text to tackle not just the practicalities of interviewing but also the varied ethical, legal, and philosophical questions that can arise. The text--now twelve chapters--allows for dedicated discussion of both legalities and ethics. Other new material include recent research on how brain functions affect memory, more comprehensive demonstration of how to analyze an interview, and details on making the most of technology, both old and new. Each chapter concludes with updated and annotated Recommended Readings and tailored appendixes address new developments, such as institutional review boards and the Oral History Association's new Principles and Best Practices.
