How do you start an oral history?
Preparing for Oral History Interviews
- Select an interviewee.
- Ask the interviewee if they are interested.
- If interviewee is interested, set up a time and place for the interview.
- Write a follow-up email confirming plans for the interview that discusses the goals, legal rights, and how the interviews will be handled.
How do I record my family’s oral history?
Tips for Recording Your Family History
- Get yourself a digital audio recorder. (In a pinch you can even use a recording app on your iOS or Android device).
- Make a plan.
- Schedule a time to sit down for a few hours, maybe over a couple of sessions, and record your interviewee’s recollections.
- Transcribe your interview.
- Donate your interview.
What is the most important element of oral history?
Four key elements of oral history work are preparation, interviewing, preservation, and access. Oral historians should give careful consideration to each at the start of any oral history project, regardless of whether it is comprised of one or many interviews.
What is an oral history interview?
What is Oral History? Oral history is a method of conducting historical research through recorded interviews between a narrator with personal experience of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of adding to the historical record.
Why is oral and local history important in doing history?
So what are oral histories and why is it important to record them? They’re a way of gathering, recording, and preserving a diverse range of personal experiences that generally are not well documented in written sources or traditional history in Western society.
How important is our knowledge of local and oral history?
Local history contains a wealth of details and stories that help reveal how societal changes impacted the lives of ordinary people. By investigating local history, you can find documents such as accounts of the first cars in a town, what people thought of them, and how they changed the lives of the community.
What steps should you follow in writing a local history?
- Start by writing what you know most about.
- Don’t just write about the big stuff.
- Who is going to read your story?
- It’s never too soon to start writing a local history.
- Make a plan before you start.
- Put your story in a wider historical context.
- Check your facts.
- Bring the past to life.