Earlier this month, the Indianapolis Public Library hosted a workshop to teach neighbors how to plan and execute an oral history project.
What happened?
The workshop was divided into several parts: planning the project, considering legal aspects of stories, lessons learned when storytelling, and technology and equipment.
Planning an oral history project
When planning an oral history project, Michella Marino, deputy director of the Indiana Historical Bureau, said to begin with a name and find similar projects to learn what worked and what didn’t.
Marino said to think through necessary equipment, background research and where the stories will be stored.
Phillip Scarpino, a retired IU history professor, shared his principles for planning a project. He said to learn to listen, learn from mistakes, and be flexible and prepared.
Scarpino also shared his steps for planning good interview questions.
He said to ensure that you ask both positive and negative questions to learn what has worked and what hasn’t. He said if you ask a good question, it shows you did your research and know your stuff.
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Legal considerations
Ben Baumann, a podcast host, and Natasha Hollenbach, the digital projects manager at the Indianapolis Public Library, reviewed legal considerations for oral histories.
Baumann explained that a release form outlines the purpose and admission of the project, and it gives the interviewer permission to use the information shared in the interview.
He recommended written release forms, because verbal releases are less powerful and can be open to interpretation. He said podcasts should use release forms, too.
Hollenbach said to state the project name, date and location of the interview on the recording so things can be easily identified later.
She also said to provide release forms at the end of interviews so people know exactly what they said when they’re giving permission for you to use it. She also noted that it can be difficult to get people to sign later, as people can forget.
Lessons learned
Kay Hawthorne, environmental justice director with Friends of the White River, and Kaila Austin, executive director of Rogue Preservation LLC, shared lessons learned from conducting oral history projects in the Norwood neighborhood.
Austin said many residents have been waiting to be asked to open trunks in their basements to tell their stories. “Women will tell certain kinds of stories. Men will tell certain kinds of stories. Make sure when you are interviewing someone to understand the social codes of the period in which they grew up,” she said.
They said to remember that the neighbors are experts on their communities.
Technology and equipment
Emily Reuben, a freelance documentarian, and Doug Boyd, director of the Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky, shared information on technology and equipment.
Reuben said the best recording equipment is whatever you have available, like a phone.
She said it’s not helpful to buy something fancy if you don’t know how to use it. She said the iPhone voice memo app is pre-built and very easy to use.
Boyd clarified that field versus studio are two different types of interviews with different tech needs. He said Zoom interviews have been normalized since COVID-19. He suggested TheirStory.io for oral histories and Zoom recordings.
Boyd ended the event as they keynote speaker. He shared his experiences in oral history.
“The dirty little secret in oral history is that all these people were doing amazing oral history projects and a handful of scholars were writing about it,” he said. “However, the scholars were only writing about their interviews. No one was using archived oral histories for scholarship.”
What’s next?
Check out Mirror Indy’s guide on how to start researching your family’s genealogy, with advice from local genealogy expert Nichelle M. Hayes and Nicole Martinez-LeGrand of the Indiana Historical Society.
Among their tips: Don’t correct your relatives on how they remember things, but do treat your photos like houseplants.
This brief is adapted from notes taken by Documenters Esmé Barniskis and Erica Fuller, who covered the Preserving Community Voices: An Oral History Symposium. Read more about what happened.
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