A year or so ago, I wrote an article on precisely this topic for Recording Magazine; it was published as "A Time to Give". It's not on their website, but the back issue is available from the magazine. Write to the editor, Mike Metlay: [log in to unmask] It was written when smartphone recording apps were still pretty rudimentary, but there's a lot of information about portable digital recorders, formats, AGC (thumbs down), microphones, and good practices for interviewing, including when the interviewer should shut up. Peace, Paul On 5/17/2014 6:32 PM, Tom Fine wrote: > My thoughts on Best Practices have to do more with the technical end of > things, how can we teach people to show up at an oral history interview > and get the most usable, most useful audio. I can tell you for a fact > that putting a cassette recorder on a table, at some distance from an > interviewee, in a room with air conditioning or other background noise, > is non-ideal. So the next step is, what can we do differently, in a > modern context, which most likely involves digital recording? In some > ways, a "smart phone" or similar device can be vastly superior to an old > cassette recorder, especially a cassette recorder with an external > microphone in nervous amateur recordist hands. But, those in the > business of collecting oral histories need to educate the collectors. I > think ARSC can help in this. Even if it's just giving basic conceptws of > successful audio recording. Ideally, someone (LOC? Story Corps? A > university? ARSC?) should develop an app for smart phone devices that > leads an amateur recordist through proper techniques to set the recorder > in a good place and lead a subject not used to talking into a recorder > through their stories and observations. > > -- Tom Fine > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hugh Paterson III" > <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2014 4:01 PM > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Collections of oral histories > > >> Tom, >> You are correct to note that there is quite a variation available >> through collections at folk archives. Some of my linguistics >> colleagues use these collections when measuring language shift and the >> sounds of language dialects in American English. One of the professors >> here at the University of Oregon has just received a grant for >> documenting the voices of Oregon. However, I am interested more in >> non-English content. In a US context this might be Native American >> folk stories in Navajo, Cree, Blackfoot, or Cherokee, etc. >> >> What you say about personal areas of expertise it exactly true, this >> is something that field linguists and language documenters must keep >> in mind. To get a wide variety of words in a language and their >> breadth of meaning, one needs to work with several speakers who each >> have different personal areas of expertise. Often this means visiting >> them in the location of where they do what they do, i.e. painters in >> the studio, mechanics in the car shop, pilots in the plane, etc. I had >> a friend who once told me, to get a story, be prepared to tell a >> story. It was his observation that if one tells a story, and does it >> first, that often the others in the group would feel obligated to tell >> a story. Then in that moment be ready with the voice recorder.... >> >> - Hugh >> >> BTW: I would be interested to know more about what you mean by best >> practices, are you talking about collection curation and item level >> description, or digitization, or about practices of collection? This >> is what I do... as a linguist, only with non-English languages. >> >> >> On May 17, 2014, at 12:34 PM, Tom Fine wrote: >> >>> Hi Hugh: >>> >>> This is tangential to your quest but may help. I did a massive >>> transfer job a few years ago for Poets House in NYC: >>> www.poetshouse.org. Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, you need to >>> visit the site to hear the massive audio archive, but there is a ton >>> of recorded poetry there, dating back to the 78 era. It's mostly >>> American and British poets, but you get the full run of English >>> dialects from the early 20th Century up to the 1990s. >>> >>> I also just completed a massive transfer job of oral histories for a >>> U.S. state. I'll tell more about it when the audio is in the database >>> and accessible online. In that collection, you get mainly the >>> southwestern US dialects from the 20th century generations. >>> >>> Also, Vermont has a folklore archive, which I assume includes oral >>> histories and the various New England dialects. >>> >>> One interesting side road to your quest could be advertising audio >>> from the early days of radio onward. I think these examples >>> demonstrate both what is considered "Generic" American English as >>> well as regional dialects and terminologies for local ads. Many OTR >>> transcriptions contain the syndicated ads, but I think local radio >>> statiions also inserted local ad copy. There is a large quantity of >>> TV advertising available on YouTube and iTunes (at no cost). >>> >>> It's also worth search archive.org. You never know what's up there >>> because they don't have the greatest self-promoting system. >>> >>> By the way, if we on the ARSC List want to start a discussion of oral >>> history Best Practices, I'd love to hear from others. I've >>> transferred many cassette-tape oral histories and have had to >>> mitigate pretty much all the wrong practices, but in the digital age, >>> I think we should discuss the better ways to do it, especially using >>> "smart phones" and similar devices. One thing that transferring 1000+ >>> oral histories over the years has taught me -- most people have at >>> least one good story and most people have deep knowledge about at >>> least one thing. Get them engaged about that keystone topic, and it's >>> like turning on a switch. It never fails to amaze and impress me. >>> >>> -- Tom Fine >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hugh Paterson III" >>> <[log in to unmask]> >>> To: <[log in to unmask]> >>> Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2014 2:00 PM >>> Subject: [ARSCLIST] Collections of oral histories >>> >>> >>>> I am looking for audio archives with significant oral histories, >>>> oral texts, or wordlist, holdings. I am particularly looking for >>>> non-english language holdings, and dark archives (where listings are >>>> not complete or listings are not available online). Two summers ago >>>> I presented a paper on language documentation and I was discussing >>>> the fragile nature of audio language artifacts. Several people told >>>> me that there were places in Europe and Russia with significant >>>> recordings either on wax cylinders or other non-digital mediums but >>>> I fail find these institutions via google searches (partially >>>> because I don't remember the names). >>>> >>>> Any ideas as to which museums or archives might have these sorts of >>>> recordings? >>>> >>>> - Hugh Paterson III >>>> >> >> >