Oral History @ VT: Resources
Oral History @ VT: Best Practices, Style Guide, and Forms
Special Collections and University Archives uses the forms and style guides below. When designing your project, refer to the Oral History Association's best practices available below. Please share deeds of gift with your interviewers and narrators, and edit transcripts according to the style guide.
- Virginia Tech Oral History Deed of GiftAll narrators and interviewers should sign this document and fill in as many portions as possible. The project manager should archive this with recordings and transcripts.
- Virginia Tech Oral History Transcript TemplateTranscripts should follow the format and style modeled in this sample template.
- Oral History Association Best Practices Archival CompendiumProject managers should also be aware of this document about appropriate archiving of oral history materials, and in particular the sections on project planning for community partners and stakeholders.
Recording and Editing Audio
In partnership with the Center for Oral History, Special Collections and University Archives provides short-term loans of audio and video equipment to support oral history creation in the field. Equipment can be loaned for up to three days at a time, and includes individual audio recorders and cameras, audio and video kits (with multiple components), and accessories like scanners, mics, headphones, cables, or tripods.
To view our available equipment, visit our Equipment Catalog. Descriptions include links to manuals, lists of what is included in kits or what is supplied with individual items, and our terms of service. Reserved equipment must be picked up at Special Collections and University Archives during our normal hours of operation. If you have questions about borrowing equipment or have trouble making a reservation, please contanct oralhistory@vt.edu.
Further, recorders and microphones are available for checkout at the Studios Technology Lending Desk on the fourth floor of Newman Library and may also be available in your academic department.
Remember to hold interviews in a comfortable and safe environment with minimal noise from air conditioning units, traffic, cell phones, and household appliances. Sound booths on the fourth floor of Newman Library are available for checkout through the Studios Technology Lending Desk. Oral historians can also schedule time to record in the Media Den, located on the first floor of Newman Library, through The Athenaeum.
Newman Library has several spaces with equipment to edit oral histories, including Media Design Studio B, on the second floor, and the Media Den, on the first floor. You may also choose to edit on your own, using available software.
Oral History Manuals
You can find these how-to guides online or in the stacks. Search the library catalog for more books and e-books about oral history.
Recording Oral History by
With extensive examples from both historical and social science literature, this book is a practical guide to methods of recording oral history. The author provides suggestions on a range of techniques from developing a written interview guide and using tape recorders to asking probing questions during in-depth interviews and editing transcriptions. She also covers the ethical and legal issues involved in conducting life-history interviews and elaborates on three different types of oral history projects: community studies, biographies and family histories.
Call Number: D16.14 .Y68 2005ISBN: 9780803955790Publication Date: 1994-02-14
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.
Call Number: D16.14 .R57 2003ISBN: 9780199329335Publication Date: 2014-10-17
Oral History by
In the past sixty years, oral history has moved from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies, being employed as a research tool by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, medical therapists, documentary film makers, and educators at all levels. The Oxford Handbook of OralHistory brings together forty authors on five continents to address the evolution of oral history, the impact of digital technology, the most recent methodological and archival issues, and the application of oral history to both scholarly research and public presentations. The volume is addressedto seasoned practitioners as well as to newcomers, offering diverse perspectives on the current state of the field and its likely future developments. Some of its articles survey large areas of oral history research and examine how they developed; others offer case studies that deal with specificprojects, issues, and applications of oral history. From the Holocaust, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, the Falklands War in Argentina, the Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe, to memories of September 11, 2001 and of Hurricane Katrina, the creative and essential efforts oforal historians worldwide are examined and explained in this multipurpose handbook.
Call Number: D16.14 .O95 2011ISBN: 9780195339550Publication Date: 2010-11-10
Oral History Beyond VT
Before you begin your own project, look into other collections to see what kinds of interviews have already been recorded. The universities below have a substantial number of interviews concerning Virginia, the South, and Appalachia in their archives.
With hundreds of thousands of audio recordings, some dating to the nineteenth century, the Library of Congress is a great starting point for researchers. Highlights include indigenous language recordings, interviews with formerly enslaved African-Americans, folk songs and folk stories, and over 60,000 interviews from men and women who served in the American military from World War I through the Iraq War.
Archives of Appalachia at Eastern Tennessee State University
The Archives of Appalachia includes over 85,000 sound recordings, mostly of old time, bluegrass, and country music. Interview topics include music, coal mining, farming, economic change in Appalachia, and the Great Depression.
This database compiles original research supported by Humanities Virginia and includes several hundred oral history interviews conducted across the state from the 1980s through the present. Collections highlight Virginia music and folklife, FBI history, occupational history, Civil Rights history, and indigenous history. Larger collections come from the Northern Neck, Martinsville, Danville, Carroll County, and Amherst County. New content is added continuously.
The DLA brings together archives from institutions in the Appalachian College Association, including several in Virginia and others in neighboring states. Oral history clips, usually shorter than a full interview, highlight music, tradition, and folklife, and the histories of the Civil War, prohibition, and the railroad. Many oral histories in the collection were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Southern Oral History Program
SOHP holds over 6,000 interviews conducted between the 1960s and the present. Their collections include interviews about Southern politics, work and labor organizing, the Civil Rights Movement, and healthcare. They also offer resources like events, internships, how-to guides, and scholarships.
The University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
The Nunn Center holds 13,000 interviews in almost 600 collections. Their specializations include the histories of agriculture, alcohol, Appalachia, extractive industries like coal, Kentucky politics, and quilts.
Baylor University Institute for Oral History
Baylor University has archived around 4,000 interviews in over 200 collections. Their collections highlight the history of genocide, memories of World War II, religious and Baptist history, and history of Texas and the Lower South. The Institute also holds in-depth online workshops available at their site.
The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida
SPOHP holds over 8,000 interviews in 100 different collections, conducted between the 1960s and the present. Their largest collections highlight life in Eastern Virginia, the Civil Rights Movement in Florida and Mississippi, Native American History, and Florida business and agriculture.
Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ Oral History Project
Founded in September 2015, the Southwest Virginia LGBTQ+ History Project researches and tells the stories of LGBTQ+ individuals and organizations in Roanoke and surrounding areas. The collection includes a walking tour, online exhibit, and dozens of interviews conduced by Roanoke College students and Professor Gregory Rosenthal.
Columbia Center for Oral History
The Columbia Center for Oral History is one of the oldest oral history programs in the country, with interviews dating from the 1940s onward. While collections often relate to nationally significant people and events, such as the John F. Kennedy project and the September 11 Response and Recovery Project, the archives also hold extensive collections on Southern intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement in the South.
Professional Associations and Journals
To learn about the work of other oral historians, and about issues they confront today, check out publications issued by the field’s professional organizations. In addition to the short list below, search for state and regional organizations in your area: