Planning an Oral History Project

The considerable amount of time, energy and expense involved in collecting,

processing, and preserving people's spoken memories means that careful
planning is essential before an oral history project or interview series is
undertaken. Interviewing hints provided by such writers as Baum, Ives, Ritchie,
and Yow, together with advice and assistance from the UCLA Oral History
Program, will help to ensure interview content of high quality as well as clarity in
the sound recordings themselves. At the same time, oral history project planners
should ask ten questions well before the first interview is scheduled.

1. What are the Objectives of the Project?

Project objectives should not be based on taping old-timers who recount

the glory and joy of the "good old days." Far more important are goals to
accumulate and preserve substantive historical data that augment and
complement other forms of documentation relating to specific events,
activities, and periods in the lives of interviewees. Prospective
interviewees in virtually any project will include "elites"--those who were
key organizers and instrumental leaders in an organization or activity--but
also "non-elites" whose participation in and support for an activity, event,
or organization was frequently of critical importance.

2. Who Will be Interviewed (and, Who Decides Who Will

be Interviewed)?

Project objectives lead to criteria for the selection of prospective

interviewees, which, in turn, determine the kind of information likely to be
acquired during a series of interviews. An oral history project should seek
to gather information not only from the oldest and most frail taping
prospects, but also preserve the remembrances of those of any age who
will help to fulfill project goals. Not everyone is equally able or willing to
provide substantive information. While project planners may decide to
tape an agreed-upon number of hours with "must" interviewees (even
though many of their contributions may be secondary or trivial), such
interviews must be balanced by others that will preserve the integrity of
the project.

As for who decides which interview prospects should be taped, a small

committee may work best. In that way the interviewer(s) may count on
others to share criticism resulting from a decision not to tape individuals
who are personal favorites ("You just can't do a project without taping. . .
."), but have little or no information to contribute.

3. Will Sufficient Time be Available for the Interviewer(s)

to Prepare for The Tape-Recorded Discussions?

There are, unfortunately, hundreds of miles of audio and video tape

demonstrating that inadequate interviewer preparation leads to low-
quality information. The quality of the information obtained from an
interview is integrally related to an interviewer's background in, and
knowledge of, the subject matter. While free-wheeling, wandering
discussions may have some future research value, the content frequently
bears little or no relationship to the project objectives.

In the early planning stages of an oral history project, it helps to know:

o Which resources (minute books, annual reports,

financial records, photographs, scrapbooks,
newsletters, etc.) are extant.
o That interviewer access to those materials will be
permitted.
o That fairly standardized content outlines and question
sets will result from research in available source
materials, with such sources revealing which
information is available, and, more importantly, which
information is not available and, therefore, must be
extracted from project interviewees.
o How useful it might be to employ a standardized,
written questionnaire to collect personal background
data during an unrecorded, pre-taping chat with a
prospective interviewee.

4. Who Will Conduct the Interviews?

One interviewer may carry out research, interviewing, or processing tasks,

or a team may share the work. If a team approach is employed, it is
essential that one individual coordinate interview scheduling, equipment
maintenance, quality control, routine administrative tasks, etc.

5. How Will the Interviews Be Conducted?

In cases where interviewer and interviewee have never met, an

unrecorded "pre-interview" session is highly recommended.

Such a session permits:

o Evaluating the interview prospect to make sure that

he/she has remembrances of sufficient value to help
achieve project goals.
o Completing personal background questionnaire, if
used.
o Building of rapport.
 o Sizing up the environment to identify a noise-free
place for taping.
o Suggesting the general areas of questioning at the
taping session(s) in the near future.
o Showing and explaining necessity for a signed legal
agreement.
o Deciding on possible date(s) and time(s) for the taped
interviews.

As a rule, a single taping session should last no longer than two hours. For
more specific tips on conducting the interview, see the UCLA Oral History
Program's Steps Toward Conducting a Good One-on-One Interview.

6. What Kind of Equipment and Supplies Should be

Used?

Today, a moderately-priced cassette machine may be used for collecting

the spoken word. In fact, open-reel field recorders are virtually
nonexistent. (Open-reel transcribing machines are no longer
manufactured.) A cassette recorder, together with a reasonably good
brand of tape (not the 3 for $1 discount store special!) and a reliable
external microphone properly placed will result in a good quality audio
recording, particularly if the interviewer is attentive to eliminating as
much extraneous environmental noise as possible.

Sixty-minute (C-60s) cassette tapes (thirty minutes per side) or ninety-

minute (C-90s) cassette tapes should be used. Avoid C-120s! Some may
find it to be a good idea to run off at least a minute's worth of blank tape
at the beginning of each side of each tape to allow room for interviewer
identification information (added after the interview is completed), and to
avoid potential frustrations later when making a preservation master copy
of the tape from the original cassette.

Always use an external microphone, a mike attached to a line cord which

plugs into a receptacle in the cassette recorder. Never use the internal
microphone that is built into the recording machine because poor-quality
sound is the inevitable result.

Wherever possible, use an electrical power cord since an already nervous

interviewer will feel less harried over the possibility of weakening batteries
during the taping sessions.

As a rule, a cassette recorder is not a good unit for taping music. If project
objectives call for taping music (or recording other non-voice sounds), an
open-reel machine operating at a speed of at least 7 1/2 i.p.s. (inches per
second) should be used.
Routine but essential maintenance of equipment will help to ensure high-
quality sound recordings. A $10-15 demagnetizer and a few dollars worth
of isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs will be sufficient for regular recorder
demagnetizing and cleaning after every 10-15 hours of use.

DAT (digital audiotape recorders) are not recommended at this time.

7. How Will the Tapes be Evaluated?

As opposed to simplistic quantitative yardsticks (hours of taped interview

produced), qualitative evaluation is crucial, especially in the early stages
of an oral history project. Qualitative evaluation is based on two main
criteria:

1. clarity of sound recording itself (absence of extraneous

noise from the environment or from the tape recorder);
and
2. quality of the information taped (actual content
compared to the general project objectives and
specific information desired).

8. What Will Happen to the Tapes After the Interview is

Completed?

After the completion of a tape-recorded interview, most of the work and

expense lies ahead. At least two-thirds of the time and cost for completing
an oral history interview or a project are incurred during post-interview
processing. A transcript and/or index must be created to aid future users
in locating pertinent information. A preservation master tape of each
cassette field interview should be made on good-quality 1/4 inch, 1.5 mil.
open-reel tape at a speed of 3 3/4 i.p.s. (at least 7 1/2 i.p.s. for music).
The original field tapes should not be used until preservation master
tapes--or at very least cassette copies--have been prepared. Master tapes
in whichever format are stored under conditions of stable temperature and
humidity, their only function being to generate additional copies as
needed.

9. Who Will Own the Interview Tapes and Transcripts?

Property and use rights to a sound recording and finding aids thereto are
owned by those who participate in an interview. To vest those rights in the
organization/ agency sponsoring an oral history interview or project, both
interviewee and interviewer must sign and date legal agreement forms.
The sponsor keeps the signed, original legal form on file if any question
arises over interview rights. At UCLA, The Regents of the University of
California is the corporate entity holding copyright to all Oral History
Program interviews.
 10. What Products May Result from an Oral History
Project?

The basic product is, of course, a package containing interview tapes,

transcripts, and indexes to provide future users with rich details about all
or part of an interviewee's life and additional information about the
environment in which the interview sessions were held. Moreover, with
good-quality sound recordings the interview tapes may provide the basis
for such uses as classroom instruction and media programming.

In summary, the more carefully an oral history project is thought out--

long before the first interviews are conducted--and the better executed
the taped interviews, the greater the prospect for substantive
information and its sustained use.

Dale E. Treleven

Director, UCLA Oral History Program

Rev. January 1999