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Guide to Oral History Interviews and Qualitative Fieldwork: Accessibility and Public Sharing

Brief introduction on the logistics of conducting oral history and ethnographic interviews. This guide covers recording, transcribing, analyzing, and ethical considerations.

Accessibility and Public Sharing

Why Accessibility Matters

Accessibility is a cornerstone of ethical and impactful research. It ensures that the materials you create, whether transcripts, recordings, or other outputs, can be accessed, understood, and utilized by the widest possible audience. Below are the key reasons why accessibility should be a priority in oral history and qualitative research:

1. Promoting Equity and Inclusion

  • Accessibility ensures that individuals with disabilities can engage with research materials.
    • Examples: Providing transcripts for audio content, captions for videos, and alternative text for images.
  • Reduces barriers for people with diverse linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds.

2. Amplifying Participants’ Voices

  • Accessible materials honor the contributions of participants by ensuring their stories reach the broadest audience possible.
  • Increases the likelihood that marginalized or underrepresented perspectives are heard and valued.

3. Enhancing Usability

  • Accessible content is easier to navigate and search, benefiting all users.
    • Examples: Searchable transcripts help researchers quickly locate information, while captions make videos useful in noisy or quiet environments.

4. Supporting Long-Term Preservation

  • Accessible formats (e.g., properly formatted text, high-quality audio) are often required for archival preservation.
  • Ensures compatibility with assistive technologies and future digital platforms.

5. Meeting Legal and Ethical Standards

  • Many institutions and repositories require accessibility measures to comply with laws such as:
    • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Requires accessibility for individuals with disabilities.
    • Section 508 Compliance: Mandates that federal websites and digital content be accessible to all users.

6. Fostering Public Engagement

  • Accessibility increases the impact of your work by making it usable for educators, community members, and public audiences.
  • Provides opportunities for broader collaboration, dialogue, and understanding.

Best Practices for Accessibility

  • Provide Multiple Formats: Offer transcripts, captions, and summaries for audio and video content.
  • Use Plain Language: Write for a general audience, avoiding jargon or overly technical terms.
  • Ensure Compatibility: Test materials with assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers, closed captioning tools).
  • Partner with Experts: Consult accessibility specialists at your institution for guidance on compliance and best practices.

Platforms for Sharing

Choosing the right platforms for sharing your oral history and qualitative research materials ensures they reach your intended audience while preserving accessibility, privacy, and long-term usability. Below are considerations and recommendations for selecting and using platforms effectively.

1. Institutional Repositories

  • What They Are: Digital archives managed by universities, libraries, or cultural institutions.
  • Why Use Them:
    • Ensure long-term preservation and accessibility.
    • Often include metadata standards and discoverability tools (e.g., search indexing).
  • Examples:
    • DigitalCommons platforms.
    • Utah State University’s Fife Folklore Archives.
  • Considerations:
    • Ensure materials comply with repository guidelines (e.g., file formats, metadata requirements).
    • Discuss permissions and licensing with participants.

2. Public Archives and Libraries

  • What They Are: Repositories that specialize in public access to historical and cultural materials.
  • Why Use Them:
    • Expand public access to your materials.
    • Engage broader audiences, including educators, historians, and community members.
  • Examples:
    • The Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center.
    • Regional or state historical societies.

3. Project-Specific Websites

  • What They Are: Custom-built websites dedicated to specific research projects.
  • Why Use Them:
    • Provide a tailored user experience, including multimedia presentation (e.g., maps, timelines, audio, and video).
    • Ideal for community-based projects with targeted audiences.
  • Considerations:
    • Plan for long-term maintenance and hosting.
    • Include accessibility features like captions, transcripts, and alt text for images.

4. Digital Collections Platforms

  • What They Are: Specialized software or platforms for showcasing digital collections.
  • Why Use Them:
    • Provide searchable interfaces for users to explore transcripts, audio, and related documents.
    • Popular with institutions and cultural organizations.
  • Examples:
    • Omeka: Open-source software for building digital collections and exhibits.
    • CONTENTdm: Used by libraries and archives for digital collection management.

5. Social Media and Multimedia Platforms

  • What They Are: Platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and social media channels.
  • Why Use Them:
    • Increase visibility and reach wider audiences.
    • Useful for promotional snippets or highlights of larger projects.
  • Examples:
    • Publish oral history excerpts on YouTube with captions.
    • Share stories or images on Instagram or Twitter to draw attention to a larger archive.
  • Considerations:
    • Be mindful of privacy and permissions.
    • Always provide links to full, accessible resources hosted on more permanent platforms.

6. Open Access Repositories

  • What They Are: Platforms that ensure unrestricted access to research materials for public use.
  • Why Use Them:
    • Promote equitable access to knowledge.
    • Meet funder requirements for open access.
  • Examples:
    • Zenodo: A multidisciplinary open-access repository.
    • HathiTrust: Digital preservation repository for books, archives, and oral histories.
  • Considerations:
    • Verify that your materials meet open-access guidelines, including proper licensing (e.g., Creative Commons).

Best Practices for Choosing a Platform

  1. Consider Your Audience: Select platforms that align with your target users (e.g., researchers, educators, the public).
  2. Prioritize Accessibility: Choose platforms that support accessibility features such as transcripts, captions, and alt text.
  3. Ensure Sustainability: Use platforms with long-term support and secure hosting to avoid losing your work.
  4. Maintain Ethical Standards: Only share materials that align with participant consent agreements and privacy requirements.
  5. Collaborate with Experts: Consult your institution’s digital stewardship team, IT department, or library staff for technical support.

Metadata (Data About Your Data!)

Metadata is the information that describes, organizes, and provides context for your research materials. It acts as "data about your data," ensuring that your materials are discoverable, understandable, and usable for current and future audiences. Proper metadata is essential for maintaining accessibility, long-term preservation, and ethical transparency.

1. What is Metadata?

Metadata provides structured details about your materials, answering key questions:

  • What is this? Title, description, and subject matter.
  • Who created it? Authors, interviewers, participants.
  • When and where? Dates, locations, and settings.
  • How was it made? File formats, technical specifications, and recording devices.

2. Types of Metadata

  1. Descriptive Metadata:

    • Helps users identify and understand the material.
    • Includes:
      • Titles: "Oral History Interview with Jane Doe"
      • Subjects: "Women in STEM," "Rural Utah"
      • Keywords: "engineering," "family life"

  2. Administrative Metadata:

    • Manages the material's lifecycle and access.
    • Includes:
      • File formats: WAV, MP4, PDF/A
      • Rights and permissions: "Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0"
      • Custodianship: "Fife Folklore Archives, Utah State University"

  3. Technical Metadata:

    • Details technical aspects of the files.
    • Includes:
      • Audio sample rates: 48kHz, 24-bit
      • File size: "2.4 GB"
      • Device used: "Zoom H5 Recorder"

  4. Structural Metadata:

    • Organizes the relationship between items.
    • Includes:
      • Chapters or segments of an interview.
      • Links between a transcript and its corresponding audio file.

3. Why Metadata Matters

  1. Improves Discoverability:

    • Helps researchers and the public locate your materials through keywords, titles, and subject headings.
    • Makes your work searchable in institutional repositories, library catalogs, and online databases.

  2. Ensures Usability:

    • Provides context for users to understand your materials.
    • Preserves essential details about file formats and technical specifications for future access.

  3. Supports Ethical Transparency:

    • Documents participant consent, usage rights, and data handling protocols.
    • Clarifies how and why the material was created.

  4. Facilitates Collaboration and Sharing:

    • Standardized metadata enables compatibility across platforms and institutions.

4. How to Create Effective Metadata

  1. Use Standards:

    • Follow metadata schemas such as:
      • Dublin Core (general use)
      • MODS (Metadata Object Description Schema, used in libraries)
      • PBCore (for audiovisual materials)

  2. Be Consistent:

    • Use a standardized naming schema for files and consistent terminology for metadata fields.
    • Example: "2024-11-20_Smith_Interview.wav"

  3. Include Essential Details:

    • Example Metadata for an Interview:
      • Title: Oral History Interview with Jane Doe
      • Interviewer: John Smith
      • Participant: Jane Doe
      • Interview Date: November 20, 2024
      • Location: Logan, Utah
      • Keywords: Women in STEM, Rural Utah
      • File Format: WAV, 48kHz

  4. Document Changes:

    • Record updates, edits, or redactions to transcripts or files.
    • Example: "Redacted 11/22/2024 to remove sensitive details."

5. Tools for Metadata Creation

  1. Spreadsheet Software (Excel, Google Sheets):

    • Use to create simple metadata tables.
    • Example Fields: Title, Date, Interviewer, File Type, Rights.

  2. Metadata Editing Tools:

    • OpenRefine: Clean and standardize metadata.
    • Adobe Bridge: Add metadata to media files.

  3. Integrated Platforms:

    • Institutional repositories or collection management systems like CONTENTdm or Omeka often have built-in metadata fields.

Best Practices for Metadata

  • Think Long-Term: Metadata should serve users now and in the future, so include enough detail for someone unfamiliar with the project.
  • Prioritize Accuracy: Double-check names, dates, and technical specs.
  • Align with Participant Consent: Ensure metadata reflects any restrictions or preferences set by participants.
  • Collaborate with Experts: Work with archivists or metadata specialists to ensure your data meets professional standards.
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License