Heritage Grants

Special Guidelines and Recommendations for
Oral History Projects 2008

Click here to download these Guidelines for Photographs 2008.

TOPICS

Oral history projects should have a well-defined topic or topics that will be explored. Projects which simply seek to record the memories of elderly residents about the "old days" are less effective (and less competitive as grant applications) than those which pursue a particular theme, i.e. the history of an occupation such as farming or railroading; a time period such as the Dust Bowl or World War II; the history and development of an organization such as the Swedish Heritage Society, farm cooperative, etc.

Think of your interviews as a research project in which you are seeking answers to important questions, as well as recording individual stories. The better you are able to focus on the "big questions" you want to answer, the more useful and effective your interviews will be. For example, "how did the role of women and children in farm production change in our community after World War II?" is a more fruitful direction for oral history research than the more broad "what was life like on the farm after World War II?"

Or, let’s say your plan is to interview a group of first- and second-generation immigrants about ethnic traditions that were practiced and how those were passed on to the next generation. The outcome of a good oral history project should be more than just a catalog of traditions and how they varied from family to family. It should also help you to address larger questions, such as "what role have the church and other cultural organizations played in perpetuating ethnic traditions?" or, "how and why has the practice of our ethnic traditions changed over time?"

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TRAINING

We recommend that oral history projects include at least one training session for the prospective interviewers that is led by your Heritage Program consultant. The consultant can help interviewers refine and test their techniques, develop sample questions, and set goals for the interviews they will conduct. Ongoing discussion with the consultant, such as sending him/her the first interview for a critique, is also important.

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INTERVIEWING METHODS

It’s helpful to develop a list of sample questions that you will ask in your interviews, though of course every interview will be somewhat different. Talk to your consultant about how to develop these questions. Providing a list of questions in your grant application will make your proposal stronger.

We also suggest that you include a list of potential interview subjects in your grant application. Note that the goal of oral history is to obtain a first-person account. Choose interview subjects with first-hand knowledge of your topic, rather than those who can only share stories about events that occurred before they were born. Use community historians as resource people, rather than as interview subjects.

Many oral historians suggest that the most effective interviews are conducted in the interview subject’s home. A studio or other institutional setting may offer technical advantages, but interview subjects, especially the elderly, will be more at ease in familiar surroundings.

All interviews should ideally be audiotaped. Videotape is also an acceptable and popular way of recording interviews, but audiotapes should be used as a backup method during videotaped interviews to ensure against mechanical failure. Audiotapes are also far more useful than videotapes for transcribing interviews.

Interviewers should always be sensitive to the person they are interviewing. It’s important to ask in advance for the interview subject’s permission to be taped. Some people may not want to be videotaped because the camera makes them self-conscious or uncomfortable. Interviewers should be aware that subjects may want the tape recorder turned off during the discussion of sensitive personal or political topics.

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TECHNOLOGY ISSUES

Usually, interviews are recorded on donated equipment such as tape recorders and camcorders which are operated by volunteers, or professionals donating their services. Heritage program grants seldom pay full fees for professional videographers. A professional quality video or documentary is an excellent way of sharing outcomes of the project and creating educational resources. However, the sponsoring group should plan on securing some or all of the funding for this type of expense as part of their local cost share, since large-scale video production is beyond the scope of the Heritage Program.

With audiotapes, always use name brands and avoid 120-minute tapes, which tend to break. The final produce for a videotaped interview needs to be VHS size to enable the widest possible viewing. You should consider including funds to make VHS copies of your tapes if they will be recorded on the smaller home videotapes or on 3/4" equipment.

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TRANSCRIPTION

We encourage you to have the interviews transcribed. Audiotape is easier to use for transcribing than videotape. Either volunteers or special assistants hired with grant funds may create the transcripts.

Transcription is a time-consuming process (allow three to four hours clerical time for each hour of tape). However, transcripts make the interviews easily accessible to researchers and ensure that the contents will not be lost. Both audiotape and videotape decay over time; fading of videotapes begins within 7 to 10 years.

If transcription is not within the scope of your project, we recommend that they interviews be indexed (topics of discussion on the tape listed along with the counter numbers to help future researchers locate topics on the tapes).

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RELEASE FORMS

Release forms which meet the requirements of U.S. copyright law must be obtained form all individuals who are interviewed. The release forms ensure that future researchers will be able to read and reproduce the interviews. You should submit a copy of the release form that you will use with your final application, or as soon as the grant is funded.

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ACCESS TO THE PROJECT MATERIALS

At the end of the project, all original tapes, transcripts, and release forms should be placed in a public archive such as a library or museum that is accessible to researchers during regular hours. KHC allows modifications of this requirement by Native American groups who want to preserve confidential religious and tribal information.

In addition, the Heritage Program requires you to contact a statewide archive and offer them the option of copying the materials you collect for their own collections. Choose one of the archives from the list below, and contact the archivist to talk about the project as early as possible. The cost of copying tapes and transcripts will sometimes be borne by the archive. In other cases, funds may be added to the KHC grant award for this purpose. Contact KHC staff for more details.

STATEWIDE ARCHIVES

Farrell Library, Kansas State University, Manhattan KS 66506
Archivist: Anthony Crawford, 785/532-7456

Kansas Collection, Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence KS 66045
Archivist: Sheryl Williams, 785/864-4284

Kansas State Historical Society, 6425 SW 6th, Topeka KS 66615
Archivist: Patricia Michaelis, 785/272-8681, ext. 270

Special Collections, Ablah Library, Wichita State University, Box 68,
Wichita KS 67260
Archivist: Michael Kelly, 316/978-3590

Special Collections & University Archives, Leonard H. Axe Library, Pittsburg
State University, Pittsburg KS 66762
Archivist: Randy Roberts, 620/235-0483

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR YOUR FINAL GRANT APPLICATION

The most successful oral history applications include some or all of the following:

• A discussion of the interview topic and some of the central questions the project will try to explore.

• A list of people you hope to interview.

• Some sample interview questions.

• A sample release form that you will use as a model in the project.

• An explanation of how and where the interviews will take place (in homes, audiotaped or videotaped, etc.).

• A description of the role your consultant will play in training interviewers and offering feedback on interview techniques.

• The name of the public archive that will house the project materials upon completion, and the name of the statewide archive which will be offered the opportunity to copy tapes and transcripts when the project is completed.

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