VFP Oral History Workshop

A basic guide to the concepts, techniques and strategies of oral history research
Parts I and II

III. Technical Matters

A. Documentation: Audio/Video Recording and Field Notes
Tape recorders, microphones, tapes
Using the tape recorder
Videotaping
Field Notes

B. Photos and Photography

C. Forms
Interview data sheet
Legal Release form

D. Archiving
Storage
Accessioning
Transcription
Verbatim vs. edited transcripts
IV. Conclusion
V. Acknowledgements
VI. Basic References
VII. Archives in Virginia & Vicinity
VIII. Sample Forms

III. Technical Matters

III.A Documentation: Audio/Video Recording and Field Notes
Tape recorders, microphones, tapes: Tape recorders serve the need to preserve with
accuracy and integrity. Note-taking is adequate for mere fact gathering. But for
qualitative materials, detailed narrative descriptions of experience or work routines, tape-
recorders are indispensible.
If at all possible, use a cassette recorder with an external microphone. Recorders with
built-in microphones tend to record a lot of their own mechanical noise. External mikes
will repay you many times over with clarity.
There are quite a variety of microphones available, and you need some basic knowledge
to make the choice that best suits your needs. Two basic types can be distinguished by the
kind of transducer (sound-sensing element) used. We can evaluate these types relative to
the needs of an oral historian, without having to understand the electronics. Dynamic
microphones are the most commonly found, least expensive type. They are rugged, but a
little less sensitive than the other basuc type -- condenser microphones; this means that,
for a good clear signal, they have to be placed pretty close to the sound source -- within a
foot, generally. Condenser mikes, are more sensitive to sound (and to damage, especially
by water) than dynamic mikes. Condenser mikes typically use a small battery inside to
power the pick-up device, so they pick up the sound without having to be placed as
closely as dynamic mikes. They also tend to be a little more expensive.
Types of microphones are also distinguished by their directionality and design.
Omnidirectional mikes, as you might guess, register sound from all directions; this is
good for certain purposes, but in interview situations, omnidirectional mikes tend to pick
up unwanted noises. More unidirectional microphones -- cardoid, super-cardoid, and
"shotgun" mikes -- reject sounds coming from behind & pick up less from the sides, as
well, and are better suited to interview situations.
The term "Shotgun" refers to mikes of a certain design. They are long -- usually 14 inches
or more, and are the most narrowly directional type; shotgun mikes reject all sounds
except those right in front, so they can be placed fairly distant; they are not audio
"telescopes," however, and still need to be within three feet or so of your sound source.
The other type of microphone design relevant to our purposes are "lavalier" (sometimes
called "tie-clip" or "necklace") mikes; these are the tiny mikes you've seen clipped to the
lapel of newscasters or talk-show guests. Lavaliers give a clear, strong sound signal; the
only drawback is that they also pick up the rustling of clothing when the wearer moves.
Generally speaking, almost any type of microphone (except omnidirectionals) will do for
oral interviewing, if it's used right. Many people prefer cardoid condenser mikes for
interviewing, since they are sensitive, directional, and don't have to be placed right in
your informant's face. If you're using a cardoid condenser mike, you can mount it on a
mike-stand about two feet from your informant, and get a good quality recording.
Shotgun mikes are quite workable, although they tend to make a person's voice sound a
bit tinny. Lavalier microphones (which are always of the cardoid condenser type) have
many advantages: they are placed right against your sound source (informant), and once
they're clipped on they are easily forgotten.
Cost of a microphone depends somewhat on your objective, but you can get an adequate
cardoid condenser mike for $40. Prices of professional-quality microphones begin around
$125, and can cost as much as $2,000. If you have it in mind to make a broadcastable
production from your tape, for radio or television, you will need to spend more. You will
also need a high-quality analog or digital tape-recorder, and a lot more training than this
basic guide provides!
One final note on mikes: be sure to get one that will match the mike input on your tape-
deck. Many small tape-recorders require a "mini-plug." (Really cheap decks sometimes
have a two-pronged mike input, used for the inexpensive mike that usually come with the
deck and have a remote on/off switch.) LArger, more expensive tape recorders often use
1/4" "phone jack" connectors. Professional quality tape decks and mikes use 3-pronged
"XLR" or "Canon" connectors. Adaptors are available to match the various microphone
cable plugs to the various mike inputs. Be aware that most pro-mikes are low-
impedance, and will require an impedance transformer to work with a consumer tape
deck.
Mike stands are useful accessories; table-top stands are available from Radio Shack for
about $15. Floor-stand models with boom arms adapt to just about any recording
situation. If a mike-stand is not available, a simple foam pad will serve the purpose of
insulating the mike from noise of table top thumps and bumps. Don't try to hand-hold you
microphone; minor finger movements will sound like thunder. If you record outdoors,
you wiil probably need a windscreen -- a little foam "cap" that fits over the sound-
receiving end of the mike.
It is important to get good quality cassette tapes. Use a well-known brand name tape in
60- or 90-minute lengths -- not 120-minutes, which tend to jam, tagle, and break (and are
also tedious to rewind and search through). Cheap cassettes ALWAYS become jammed
and tangled: avoid them.
Using the recorder: To improve your chances of making a competent recording -- practice
with your machine. Get to know your equipment; read the manual. Get a feel for the
relation between mike placement & sound quality. Being able to set up quickly &
confidently gives an appearance of competence, helps the interviewee to relax when done
unobtrusively.
To familiarize yourself with your equipment, simulate a recording situation: Place the
microphone at different points and different distances in relation to someone talking in a
normal voice. Test different levels of "gain" (recording volume), and notice how the level
of background noise increases as you turn the gain up. What you're striving for is the best
combination of microphone-placement and gain (record-level). Evaluate the results and
learn what arrangement works best.
For example: Put the recorder in record mode; move away from machine while talking in
normal voice, stating distances aloud. This test reveals the quality of the machines
responsiveness (clear, loud, hollow, muffled, distorted). You must determine the
appropriate settings for your equipment.
Before going into field, make a last-minute check:
Recorder
Interview Guide/Questions
Release form
Paper and pencil
Microphone
Extra batteries (for tape deck & mike)
Tapes
Camera & film
And, finally:
* Test your recorder!! *
Videotaping: With the increasing quality and affordability of consumer video camcorders,
many people doing oral history have opted for video as the preferred medium for
documenting oral history interviews.
There are some obvious advantages in the use of video camcorders. Audio tape recorders
do not capture an informant's gestures or the subtle nuance of facial expressions which
are non-verbal clues to attitude or perspective that may be important to evaluating or
interpreting an interview. The added visual dimension may be of interest to researchers in
future generations, as well as being of great sentimental value to an informant's family
and descendants.
But some think the use of video camcorders in oral history research will enable them later
to edit the tapes and produce an interesting video program. It ain't that simple! Doing
video does not make anything easier! Rather, it adds other levels of technical difficulty.
As you know from the preceding section, making a decent audio recording requires the
proper use of adequate equipment. With video, you have the added challenge of making a
good visual recording. First of all, you should also be aware that ordinary VHS home-
video camcorders simply do not produce broadcast-quality recordings: without getting
too technical, the electronic imaging devices in VHS recorders do not have the sharpness,
resolution, or color accuracy. VHS recordings also deteriorate with every "generation," or
copy, made; so edited VHS recordings are noticeably fuzzy.
Recently, however, some technological advances have led to the marketing of new
semiprofessional video formats which, when properly used, will give visual images very
near broadcast- quality. Priced between $1,000 to $3,700, these new "Hi8", "S-VHS" and
digital camcorders sell for only a fraction of what professional quality video camera-
recorders cost, but are still relatively expensive. Videotapes, also, are more expensive
than audiotapes, with prices ranging from about $3.50 per hour of tape for VHS, on up to
about $10 to $15 per hour for the better formats.
Apart from the equipment & expense, the production of interesting video requires talent,
imagination, and quite a bit of advance planning. Technically, you're faced with the
challenge of using good camera technique (framing shots, varying camera angles, focal
lengths), as well as problems in lighting (having adequate light, avoiding backlighting,
getting good color), in addition to getting quality audio. And in most video productions,
the microphones are kept out of the picture, and this requires special "lavalier" mikes, or
expensive directional or "shotgun" mikes. To do all this well, you need at least one
assistant (in addition to the interviewer).
Since the primary source in oral history research is the interview, videotaped oral is
history basically gives you shots of "talking heads," which does not make a visually
compelling video. And, to avoid "jump-cuts" in your finished program, you also have to
"shoot for the edit," by shooting relevant cutaway shots and locations, archival photos,
etc.
Even more expensive and challenging to operate than video production equipment is the
post-production equipment needed to edit a high-quality video production. Even the
cheapest consumer-quality editing decks (players & recorders) cost around $3,000 each,
and you'll probably want three so you can do dissolves and wipes. But you also need an
edit controller, audio mixer, character generator, and one or two time-base correctors, and
a sync generator. Then you've got to learn how to use the stuff, or pay steep fees to
someone who can do it for you.
All this is said simply to dispel any delusions you may have about producing an award-
winning historical documentary based on videotaped interviews. Not that it can't be done,
but you'll need time, money, technical expertise, and talent.
Be aware also that it's easier for an informant to forget his or her self-consciousness when
the technology is limited to a single microphone. Being stared in the face by a camcorder
may add to your informant's uneasiness. On the other hand, camcorders are becoming so
commonplace that many take them for granted.
This being said, there's no reason not to use camcorders (instead of audio recorders) to
add a visual dimension to your oral history recordings, if basic documentation is your
sole intent. It's important to remember, however, that as with audio recorders, the built-in
microphoes of video camcorders will not give you a good sound recording: external
microphones of the right type are a must!
Field Notes: Serious fieldworkers will tell you that making notes is useful even if you are
recording an interview. Making fieldnotes lets the informant know you value his words.
And it gives you something to do. More importantly, fieldnotes also enable you to capture
things the recorder can't: gestures, facial expressions.
Notes are also useful during the interview to remind yourself to ask later about something
mentioned when a question asked immdiately would interrupt the flow of talk. Keep
interruptions to a minimum; jot down questions that occur to you so you can remember
them without interrupting the flow of present moment. Later questions of clarification are
just as effective, without the risk of losing track of the current topic.
Notes are also useful as reminders to check on something in follow-up research
(verification). Follow-up questions are crucial to getting detailed, "thick" information.
III.B. Photos and Photography
Old photos can be an invaluable source of information & interest and as a stimulus for
memory, eliciting stories & facts. They are also valuable for exhibits, archives, & future
research. Informants may be willing to lend old pictures long enough for them to be
copied -- but use utmost care not to lose or damage them! It is best to take a 35mm
camera with you, along with a small copy stand and the appropriate close-up lense; this
way you can copy old photos right on the spot.
III.C. Forms
Two forms need to be filled out at the time of the interview:
1) Interview data sheet: used to record biographical data on each informant (name &
address, date & place of birth, experience), and information on the interview itself (date,
place, name of interviewer) See the appended example.

2) Legal Release form: a standard legal procedure, obtaining a signed release form
clarifies the conditions under which the interview is made, and gives formal permission
for tapes to be put on deposit in archive.
The release form functions 1) as protection against legal liability; 2) and as a contract
defining your use of the materials; and 3) as a contract protecting the interests of your
informants. If you publish an article, for example, and quote an informant saying
something he/she later decides is libelous or damaging, the release form is your legal
protection against litigation. Lawsuits are very unlikely, but by signing a release form,
your informants also give permission for you to deposit your collection of tapes,
transcripts, and photos in an archive, to make the materials available to public and
scholarly uses, and to use the materials in publications. Release forms may also include
restrictions protecting the interests of your informants, by forbidding public access until a
specified date, for instance, if your informant requires such restriction as a condition of
giving the interview. Always obtain a release form, signed by interviewer & interviewee,
at the end of the interview.
Release forms typically stipulate conditions of access to materials (giving either complete
or restricted access to tapes and/or transcripts), conditions under which the information
can be released, and intended uses of the materials. Allowances are often made for the
interviewee to add other restrictions (e.g., to be available only after death). Most peole
are willing to sign without special conditions.
Sample release forms, with varying degrees of restriction, may be found in Edward Ives's
The Tape-Recorded Interview, and many other oral history guides. A few examples are
appended to this document.
III.D. Archiving, Transcription, and Accessioning
Archiving: Archiving must be planned in advance! Tape recordings are subject to
relatively quick deterioration due to heat and humidity, and the limited longevity of the
magnetic tapes themselves. None of us have proper storage facilities in our homes. Ideal
storage facilities have a controlled environment: constant temperature of 70 degrees, & a
humidity level of 50%.
Some collectors of oral history and folklore hoard their tape recordings away in a
shoebox in a closet, where the tapes deteriorate, until virtually useless; What a waste!
Your collection, if it's to be of any value to anyone but yourself, should be deposited as
soon as possible with a properly equipped and staffed facility (a library, or the archive of
a university, organization, or national repsitory) -- even if you do so on the condition that
no one has access without your permission, or until after your death. Some archives, like
the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress, will even provide you with the
tapes to make copies of your collection, if you will agree to deposit your originals with
them.
Donating tapes to a library, museum, or archive with the proper facilities will ensure their
being preserved for the future -- if the organization will dedicate the staff, time, and
expertise to caring for the collection. The organization you select should also have the
means of making your collection accessible to the public -- that is, by accessioning your
collection into their catalog of materials, and the staff to oversee the proper use of the
matterials.
Most state universities have special collection divisions that will happily acommodate a
significant and well-organized collection. (Appended to this document is a list of
recommended archival facilities in Virginia and its vicinity.) Copies of the collection can
often be kept at libraries or other institutions in the locality where the collection was
made, as an educational resource for the immediate community.
Accessioning: Accessioning involves keeping track of collected materials by creating a
master index. This can quickly become overwhelming if not systematically planned, and
kept up to date.
1) Label tapes in the field as recorded: name of interviewee, date of interview, number of
cassette.
2) When tapes & data sheets are turned in, assign an accession number: sequential, or
coded according to date, topic, informant & number of tapes in session (e.g. 6/89-12-1).
3) Record the accession number on the tape cassette, on data sheets, release forms, and in
a master index.
Efficient accessioning facilitates organization, quick access, and retrieval. Otherwise, all
you have is a useless mess.
Transcription: Transcription is the process of taking the spoken word and putting it into
written form. Oral history info is useful only if accessible. Access to info much easier in
printed form than on cassette, though tapes themselve remain a primary document & a
valuable historical object in themselves.
But transcription is also the most difficult, dreaded, and least enjoyed aspect of fieldwork.
It is slow, painstaking work, requiring 4-10 hours for each hour of tape, which may
amount to as much as 40-50 pages. A Transcriber/Dictaphone is very helpful; these tape-
players have foot pedal for forward and reverse, which frees the typists hands from the
annoyance of punching buttons on a standard tape machine.
Though sometimes impractical, it's often good for interviewers to transcribe their own
tapes: this provides feedback on one's effectiveness as interviewer; and it suggests
follow-up questions. (But both of these can also be done in a simple review of tapes).
Interviewers are also the ones best able to decipher indistinct words and passages.
If the transcriber is not the interviewer, then the interviewer should at least review tape
and provide an outline of topics. If the entire tape is not being transcribed, the interviewer
should specify which parts to transcribe verbatim, which to summarize, and which to
merely index.
The intervewer should also review & correct the transcripts, deciphering words or
passages the typist couldn't understand.
Verbatim vs. edited transcript: Resolution of this issue depends on objectives of your
project. The general standard is HONESTY -- you cannot change the intent of a person's
statement, or put words in their mouth. Researchers are ethically obliged to strive for
ACCURACY without distortion, even if not for verbatim transcription.
In any case, doing verbatim transcription does not mean typing out every `uh' & `ah', nor
even false starts. But it is misrepresentation to edit much, or to correct grammar.
Faithfulness to speaking style may be significant to later researchers.
If you intend to develop an exhibit or publication drawing on your oral history research,
verbatim individual statements may provide just the right flavor as a direct quotation to
accompany artifact or photo; at other times, general info digested from several statements
by different people may be best used in paraphrase. But unless you know exactly which
passages are to be used how, this is an impossible question to decide beforehand.

IV. Conclusion
As Edward Ives observed, oral history is not "instant history." To do it right is hard, time-
consuming work.
But with it you can get info not obtainable in other ways. Oral histories add value and
interest to conventional historical research by putting flesh on the bones of fact. If done
properly, oral histories provide future generations of students and researchers with
invaluable primary resources of information that would have otherwise have been lost.

V. Acknowledgements
This workshop draws heavily on Sitton, et al., Oral History: A Guide for Teachers and
Others, and on Edward Ives book, The Tape Recorded Interview, and his videotape "An
Oral Historian's Work.". Readers are urged to consult these more authoritative and
comprehensive works, as well as the following resources
VI. Basic References
"An Oral Historian's Work." (Orono, Maine: Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral
History, 1987). [videotape]
Golden Days: An Oral History Guide, Dr. Richard Blaustein (Johnson City. TN: East
Tennessee State University Center for Appalachian Studies)
Oral History, James Hoopes. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979).
Oral History: A Guide for Teachers and Others, Thad Sitton, Geo. L. Mehaffy, O.L. Davis
(Austin: Univ of Texas Press, 1983).
Oral History: From Tape to Type, Cullom Davis, Kathryn Back, Kay MacLean (Chicago:
American Library Association, 1977).
People Studying People: The Human Element in Fieldwork, Robert A. Georges and
Michael Owen Jones (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
The Tape-Recorded Interview: A Manual for Fieldworkers in Folklore and Oral History,
Edward D. Ives (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1977).
VII. Recommended Archives In Virginia & Vicinity
The Virginia State Library and Archives
11th Street at Capitol Square
Richmond, VA 23219-3491
434/786-2332
Alderman Library
Special Collections/Manuscripts
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
434/924-3025
The Newman Library
Special Collections Dept.
Virginia Polytechnic Institue and State University
Blacksburg, VA 24061-1434
703/231-6308
Southern Historical Collection
Manuscripts Department
CB # 3926, Wilson Library
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3926
919/962-1345
East Tennessee State University
Archive of Appalachia
Center for Appalachian Studies and Services
Box 70556
Johnson City, TN 37614-0556
615/929-5348

The following archives are especially appropriate repositories for collections

documenting folklife -- including traditional music, song, narrative, and material culture:
Archive of Folk Culture
American Folklife Center
Library of Congress
Washington, D.C. 20540-8100
202/707-6950
The Kevin Barry Perdue Archive of Traditional Culture
Brooks Hall B001
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904
434/924-6823
Southern Folklife Collection
Manuscripts Department
CB #3926, Wilson Library
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3926