For more information on what to cover during the pre-interview meeting, please see the Related Materials column on this page. You may find the Pre-Interview Meeting document helpful.
When the prospective interviewee has agreed to participate in your oral history project, you should proceed with scheduling the interview. Note that they may agree to participate during the pre-interview meeting or may want more time to consider participating.
Interview day is approaching! You should be sure to complete the following before interview day:
You can find a Pre-Interview Checklist in the Related Materials column on this page. Use this checklist to keep yourself on track!
As an interviewer, your role is to be an active listener and to guide the conversation. There are various techniques to interviewing that can take some time to learn, but with practice, allows you to master the art of conducting an oral history interview. Here are some of those techniques:
Note that these techniques represent the most that you should be speaking during an interview. Make sure to limit interruptions, including the temptation to offer verbal affirmations. Affirm in other ways like smiling, nodding, etc.
If you are new to oral history, you should first obtain training in oral history interviewing. For more information on free and low-cost options for oral history training, see Recommended Readings and Resources: Oral History Training Programs.
You can find an Interview Day Checklist in the Related Materials column on this page. Use this checklist to keep yourself on track!
Once you have asked your final question (and verified that the interviewee has nothing left to add), be sure to thank the interviewee for participating, and provide them an overview of what happens next (i.e. the processing of the interview) and a rough estimate of how long each step will take.
Once the interview has ended, you should immediately make sure the recording file and the backup are saved, and upload it to the cloud storage platform. It's a good idea to have multiple copies of recordings stored in multiple locations so that if one is lost/destroyed, you have not permanently lost the interviews. You should create and use a file-naming convention when saving your recordings (See Step 4: Process the Interview).
To prepare the interview for processing, note that: