Instructions for Interviewers

Equipment Preferences

Most preferred format:

High-definition (HD) Camcorder using MiniDV tape cartridge.
Standard-definition (SD) Camcorder using MiniDV tape cartridge.

Realia

Encourage your narrators to bring any realia or artifacts of their library careers. Take pictures with your digital camera of your interviewee and their mementos.

Ask your interviewees to bring pictures of their libraries. Scan these as jpegs.

Pictures of your narrators and their realia will make the site visually arresting, and provide some context to each interview.

Before conducting the interview:

No matter what equipment you use, you must rehearse with it before your scheduled interview. There is nothing worse than getting home from an interview to find your recording is useless.

1. Find out how close the microphone should be placed to your narrator. Experiment with different practice narrators. For example, if you I have a loud, booming voice, you will need to place the mic much closer to your narrator than to yourself.
2. Experiment with different surfaces to place the camera. Often narrators will tap the table to emphasize points creating loud booms on the recording. You may find it best to place the mic on a cushioning cloth such as a towel or a piece of packing foam.
3. Keep in mind how these interviews will be viewed on the website. The streaming video screen is only about 5 inches square on most computer monitors. Fill up the camera viewfinder with the interviewee's head and shoulders so that their expressions will be captured.
4. Know the amount of recording that will fit on your media. For example, most miniDV tapes hold 60 minutes of recording.
5. Listen for any background noise. Are there appliances that are humming? Are there fans that can be switched off? Are there any household pets that need to be relocated?
6. Mute your cellphone.
7. Make the space comfortable.
8. Have some water within reach to drink. Save eating food until after the interview is completed.
9. Have the interviewee fill out the Volunteer Interviewee Form. This provides the project with a standard set of biographical metadata to code each interview with. Here is a printable copy of the form to use if you do not have Internet access at the time of the interview.
10. Have the interviewee fill out the Oral History Release Form.

During the interview:

1. Begin each interview with the Opening Script.
2. Have an outline of chosen questions ready. There are suggestions under Question Bank.
3. Listen to your narrator. Be prepared to follow their lead and abandon your pre-selected questions.
4. Listen to your narrator. Give them time to reminisce and follow up on their own stories.
5. Remember to use prompts, such as "Can you tell me more?" Remember the five W's and the one H when you ask follow-up questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
6. It is often useful to follow a funneling approach in asking questions: move from the general to the specific.
7. Channel Terri Gross on Fresh Air.
8. Have fun!
9. Watch the clock and note when your recording medium will be full.

After the interview:

Mail the following to the Project office:

1. MiniDV tape
2. Paper or digital copy of the Narrator Information Sheet
3. Paper or scanned digital copy (with signature) of the Oral History Release Form
4. Paper or digital copy of the Context Notes Sheet.

If you are willing to transcribe the recording, consider using the following free application: http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/ It creates hotkeys on your keyboard to control play-back and incremental rewinds. When you have finished the transcription, it may be emailed separately. Please make a backup of the original digital file prior to beginning the transcription.

Address to mail materials:
Arro Smith
Doctoral candidate
The University of Texas at Austin School of Information
1616 Guadalupe Suite #5.202
Austin, TX 78701-1213