O_H_Design_Document

=  Oral Histories Design Document   =

toc

Introduction
In order to explain what we are doing and why to potential participants and volunteers, we need a design document. This will also be very helpful as we search for funds to underwrite our work. Please add your suggestions for such a document on this page. We can keep editing it until we have a manuscript that will do the job.

Basic Questions
All questions are not created equal. A factual interview is primarily based on objective, closed-ended questions (who, what, when). Answers tend to be short, verifiable data like names, dates, and places. In general, the answers are nouns. An entertaining interview tends to be based on subjective, open-ended questions (how and why). Answers can be long, wandering, and can include guesses. In general, answers are based on verbs and emotions. A complete story requires both because some elements are precise and some elements are human. Crafting a useful interview for subsequent research requires a balance. Conducting a useful interview requires rigor from the interviewer to make sure both types of questions are asked. A questionnaire helps, but can be too restrictive, and may discourage an interviewee. A conversation is more engaging but can discourage the researcher by missing data. When possible, schedule more than one interview so the subsequent ones can fill in the appropriate gaps.

Who
 * Objective questions**

What
When

How
 * Subjective questions**

Why

Core Material for Interview Guidelines
- extracted from a deleted JC page

__ Principles for Oral History and Best Practices for Oral History __ : http://www.oralhistory.org/about/principles-and-practices/
 * Best Practices & Standards **
 * For Oral History: **

-Oral history refers both to a method of recording and preserving oral testimony and to the product of that process.
 * Intro **

-A verbal document, the oral history, results from this process and is preserved and made available in different forms to other users, researchers, and the public

-Oral History Association encourages individuals and institutions involved with the creation and preservation of oral histories to uphold certain principles, professional and technical standards, and obligations like commitments to the narrators, to standards of scholarship for history and related disciplines, and to the preservation of the interviews and related materials for current and future users.

-For the readers’ convenience, a bibliography of resources is provided online at the Oral History Association website.

-Oral history interviews seek an in-depth account of personal experience and reflections, with sufficient time allowed for the narrators to give their story the fullness they desire. The content of oral history interviews is grounded in reflections on the past as opposed to commentary on purely contemporary events.
 * General Principles for Oral History **

-Oral historians insure that narrators voluntarily give their consent to be interviewed and understand that they can withdraw from the interview or refuse to answer a question at any time. Narrators may give this consent by signing a consent form or by recording an oral statement of consent prior to the interview.

-Interviewers must insure that narrators understand the extent of their rights to the interview and the request that those rights be yielded to a repository or other party, as well as their right to put restrictions on the use of the material.

-In the use of interviews, oral historians strive for intellectual honesty and the best application of the skills of their discipline, while avoiding stereotypes, misrepresentations, or manipulations of the narrators’ words.

-Oral history interviews are historical documents that are preserved and made accessible to future researchers and members of the public. This preservation and access may take a variety of forms, reflecting changes in technology.

1) Interviewers and those involved should prepare themselves before attempting the stages of the oral history process
 * Best Practices for Oral History **
 * Pre-Interview **

2) Interviewers should make contact with an appropriate repository that has the capacity to preserve the oral histories and make them accessible to the public.

3)Narrators should be chosen based on the relevance of their experiences to the subject at hand.

4) Interviewers should conduct background research on the person, topic, and larger context in both primary and secondary sources

5) When contacting narrator, oral historians should send via regular mail or email an introductory letter outlining the general focus and purpose of the interview, and then follow-up with either a phone call or a return email

6) After securing the narrator’s agreement to be interviewed, the interviewer should schedule a non-recorded meeting.

7) Oral historians should use the best digital recording equipment within their means

8) Interviewers should prepare an outline of interview topics and questions to use as a guide to the recorded dialogue.

1) Interview should be conducted in a quiet room with minimal background noises and possible distractions.
 * Interview **

2) The interviewer should record a “lead” at the beginning of each session to help focus his or her and the narrator’s thoughts to each session’s goals.

3) Both parties should agree to the approximate length of the interview in advance.

4) Ask creative and probing questions and listening to the answers

5) The interviewer should secure a release form, by which the narrator transfers his or her rights to the interview to the repository or designated body

1)understand that appropriate care and storage of original recordings begins immediately after their creation.
 * Post Interview **

2)Interviewers should document their preparation and methods

3)archivists should make clear to users the availability and connection of these materials to the recorded interview.

4)The recordings of the interviews should be stored, processed, refreshed and accessed according to established archival standards designated for the media format used.

5)repositories should make transcriptions, indexes, time tags, detailed descriptions or other written guides to the contents.

6)interviews should honor the stipulations of prior agreements made with the interviewers or sponsoring institutions including restrictions on access and methods of distribution.

7)The repository should comply to the extent to which it is aware with the letter and spirit of the interviewee’s agreement with the interviewer and sponsoring institution.

8)All those who use oral history interviews should strive for intellectual honesty and the best application of the skills of their discipline.

**__ Oral History In the Digital Age __**

 * __ - Essays __ : http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/essays/ **

-Written by some of the most noted experts in the field, the following texts are designed to give you the latest information on best practices in collecting, curating, and disseminating oral histories.

-As micro-essays and case studies, the texts are designed to be easily updated and revised as technologies change. Viewers are invited to leave comments or turn to OHDA Wiki to leave ones own updates and perspectives on the issues raised. Find out more about the authors.

** Oral History Interview Technique **
__ Indiana University Blomington- Oral History Techniques: http://www.indiana.edu/~cshm/techniques.html __ -Oral history interviewing is one more tool in the larger repertoire of anyone interested in history, anthropology, and folklore. It collects information about the past from observers and participants in that past.

-Gathers data not available in written records about events, people, decisions, and processes. Oral history interviews are grounded in memory, and memory is a subjective instrument for recording the past, always shaped by the present moment and the individual psyche.

-Reveals how individual values and actions shaped the past, and how the past shapes present-day values and actions.

-Every interviewing experience is unique: there are things you can do before, during, and after your interview to make every interview more successful.

__ Regional Oral History Office- Tips for Interviewers: __ [|http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/resources/rohotips.html]

1)The whole point of the interview is to get the narrator to tell their story. Limit your own remarks to a few pleasantries to break the ice, then brief questions to guide them along.

2)Ask open ended questions

3)Ask one question at a time

4)Ask brief questions

5)Start with casual questions before you hit the hard hitting questions

6)Relax. Don't let periods of silence fluster oneself

7)Don't let fumbled words bring you down

8)Be careful/ courteous when interrupting

9)Do your best to get the interviewee back on track if they stray into a non pertinent subject

10)Before asking the narrator to describe someones personality first ask for the description of someones physical appearance. Less intimidating way for someone to describe someones personality is if they are first asked to describe appearance.

11)Don't share ones own personal opinion before asking a question

12)When researching an important point in ones story focus on the who, what, where, and when

13)Do not challenge accounts you think might be inaccurate

14)Tactfully point out to your narrator that there is a different account of what she is describing, if there is. (I have heard...)

15)Try to avoid "off the record" information--the times when your narrator asks you to turn off the recorder while she tells you a good story.

16)Don't switch the recorder off and on

17)Interviews usually work out better if there is no one present except the narrator and the interviewer

18)End the interview at a reasonable time. An hour and a half is probably the maximum.

19) Don't use the interview to show off your knowledge, vocabulary, charm, or other abilities

** Computing History & Oral History **
__ Computer History Museum- Oral History Collection: __ http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/oralhistories/

-contains audio recordings, video footage, and transcripts of interviews and panel discussions with some of the world's most innovative computing pioneers.

-Interviews are conducted via the Museum's oral history program, which aims to preserve, collect, and communicate the unique stories of the Information Age to present and future generations.

-Video footage and digital transcripts of interviews and panel discussions are accessible through this site and can found through sites search.

__Women in Computing:__ http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Women_in_Computing

-In 1996-1998, Dr. Janet Abbate served as a post-doctoral fellow at the IEEE History Center. Her chief focus during her fellowship was the completion of her book on the history of the internet, Inventing the Internet(MIT Press, 1999)

-As her next project a study of female participation in computer science and technology, with the goal of writing a book on the subject.

-Major part of her research for the project in 2001-2003 was conducting fifty-two oral histories with American and British women in computing. She contacted the IEEE History Center to see if it was interested in the project (it was) and if we would be willing to work with her, and preserve the finished oral histories

-Decade later she has finished this book, Recoding Gender: Women’s Changing Participation in Computing,(MIT Press, Fall 2012). With the book’s completion, the original oral histories are being made available for the first time to other researchers here through the IEEE Global History Network.

-Now Dr. Abbate is Associate Professor of Science and Technology in Society at the Northern Virginia campus of Virginia Tech University.

** Oral History & Education **
__ Computing Educators Oral History Collection: __
 * http://www.cs.southwestern.edu/OHProject/collection.html **

-The cornerstone of the Computing Educators Oral History Project is the collection of interviews.

-During 2011, all of the interview materials (audio, video, and transcripts) will be transferred to the Charles Babbage Institute(CBI) for long-term storage.

-Once the materials have been cataloged by CBI, all CEOHP interviews will also be available via their searchable index as well. Site presents several views of the collection, each of which links in turn to the overview page for each interviewee in the CEOHP collection.

__ Computing Educators Oral History Collection-Continued: __ //www.cs.southwestern.edu/OHProject/index-educators.html

-Lesson plans and other materials can inspire pre-college and undergraduate teachers for how to incorporate the CEOHP interviews into their teaching. A general information page about these materials is also included in the CSTA's Online Repository of K-12 Computer Science Teaching and Learning Materials.

Set teaching materials- in the form of lesson plans, have been designed to fit with CEOHP and encourage students to explore the interviews.

Essay Questions-summarized statements from the interviews as the basis for essay questions that encourage students to think deeply as they write about particular issues.

Notable Quotes-From interview there is a collected a set of statements that amused us, intrigued us, or made us think. Our summary of notable quotes provides a great jumping-off place for browsing the interviews.

Literary References- Many interviewees mentioned literary references, including books read for fun or used in teaching, as well as films used in class. Browse these references for ideas you can adapt for your own use in the classroom.

Cloud Views- Word clouds and tag clouds provide a way to represent meanings and themes from the interviews in a creative manner. Summarized this work-in-progress and encourage teachers to adapt these techniques in their own teaching.