Practising oral history
Oral History Australia (OHA) is committed to promoting best practice in oral history research to protect the interests of both interviewers and and interviewees and help ensure the longevity and usefulness of oral history interviews.
Best practice involves:
- ethical conduct and informed consent in interviews and post-production
- high quality recording
- well planned and executed oral history projects
- archiving oral history interviews for longevity and accessibility.
We have prepared a number of guides to assist with these goals.
Our State associations also regularly run training workshops and other events aimed at promoting best practice oral history.
Please note that our organisation does not provide professional accreditation and membership of our State associations is open to all.
Alistair Thomson interviews Bob Pulford in November 2019 for an oral history project on Holden workers in Australia.
Guides by other organisations
General
- State Library of NSW – Oral history and sound collections research guide
- Self Evident, Asian American stories – Oral history toolkit
Archiving
- Oral History Association (US) – Archiving oral history: Manual of best practices
- University of Warwick (UK) – Archiving oral history
Indigenous interviewing
- University of Winnipeg Oral History Centre guide, link to the press release, which provides a link to the free pdf file.
Legacy recordings – Risk assessment
- National and State Libraries Australasia – Procedural guidelines: Risk assessment in oral history recordings
Reading list:
- Oral History Society (UK) – bibliography – https://www.ohs.org.uk/advice/oral-history-a-bibliography/.
Remote interviewing & the pandemic
- Oral History Society (UK) – Advice on interviewing during COVID-19 pandemic
- Oral History Association (US) – Remote interviewing resources
Recording oral histories with veterans
- Department of Veterans Affairs – Recording oral histories with veterans
Technology
- Oral history in the Digital Age – website