Remote Interviewing Resources (USA)

“The Oral History Association is proud to announce the release of its new suite of remote interviewing resources. These resources are a product of the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirement to cease face-to-face interviewing for the health of both narrator and interviewer. By March 2020, many of us found ourselves sheltering in place, trying to learn how to do our jobs from home. For those working in oral history, remote interviewing became a pathway to continue essential oral history work. This guide is meant to be a resource to practitioners as they work through the numerous questions that arise with this method.” See this website.

OHA (USA) Conference

Clifford Kuhn, executive director of the Oral History Association (OHA), believes it’s the duty of Oklahomans to preserve every bit of this state’s history, all from a first-person narrative.  “The Oral History Association is a national organization of people who engage in oral history interviews, recording people about their firsthand experiences of the past,” Kuhn said. “We try to improve the standards and upgrade the practices of recording oral history, elevating what people are supposed to do when they do interviews, from the equipment you need, the questions you ask, how you present the material and what you do with it. In other words, it’s not as simple as ‘Tell us about the good old days, Grandpa.’” The OHA holds an annual meeting and offers workshops designed to help and guide oral history enthusiasts, from the novice to the seasoned. The event includes presentations on the importance of oral history in the digital age, folk music as oral history and a special public event by Edward T. Linenthal, author of The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. For full story click here.

Report on Oral History Association Conference (USA)

A month ago, the Oral History Association hosted their 2012 annual conference, “Sing It Out, Shout It Out, Say It Out Loud: Giving Voice through Oral History” in Cleveland, Ohio. Through papers, performances, exhibits and roundtables, conference attendees examined “the ways many people express themselves within oral histories, and also the ways in which people craft existing oral histories into other means of expression.” Unsurprisingly, one topic that came up in both formal presentations and casual conversation was the field’s use of the latest tech. Below are two reports from conference by Jeff Corrigan and Melanie Morse that speak to technology’s increasingly importance to the collection and dissemination of oral history research (including QR Codes).  For full story click here