Curating Oral Histories: From Interview to Archive

by Nancy MacKay

The interview is completed, the recorder packed away, and you've captured the narrator's voice for posterity. The bulk of your oral history is finished―or is it? Nancy MacKay, archivist and oral historian, addresses the crucial issue often overlooked by How do you ensure that the interview you so carefully recorded will be preserved and available in the future? MacKay goes carefully through the various steps that take place after the interview―transcribing, cataloging, preserving, archiving, and making your study accessible to others. Written in a practical, instructive style, MacKay guides readers, step by step, to make the oral history “archive ready”, offers planning strategies, and provides links to the most current information in this rapidly evolving field. This book will be of interest to oral historians, librarians, archivists and others who conduct oral history and maintain oral history materials. See more at

Genres: Library Science, Nonfiction, Professional Development

156 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2006

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a surprise. This is a fascinating and profoundly useful book for archivists, librarians and oral history researchers. It offers a 'how to' guide to preserve oral history collections. There is strong attention to the audience for the materials and cataloguing. I was very impressed by the handling of digitization and metadata. This is also a find guide for scholars to read when understanding the responsibilities for dissemination of oral historiography.

The book is really written in two parts. Pages 1-89 offer a fine overview and guide through the handling of oral testimony and collections. The Appendix section is also very useful for perhaps an even wider audience.

While commencing with profiles of oral history programmes, Appendix B is an absolute ripper. It presents sample forms for archive administration, legal issues, transcribing, cataloguing and preservation. It is incredibly useful to have template forms presented in this way.

Appendix C is the glossary and because of the attention to digitization and platform management, it is a fine guide particularly through metadata schemes for archivists.

This is a fine book for oral history programmes and library and information management. A pleasure to read.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars is a lot to give a practical manual, and I wouldn't recommend this for its entertainment value. But, it has the advantage of being well-organized and extremely useful. This will be of more value as a reference work to librarians and archivists than the (admittedly great) Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide, and it probably should be read by historians and managers of organizations thinking about oral history as well, to give a more realistic view of what is really required. Oral history is an ongoing commitment of resources for curation, and should never be entered into lightly. It is also a wonderfully valuable resource, and books like this increase the probability of its being done right, which is worth its slender weight in gold.

[Nancy Mackay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am the author of this book and would be delighted to hear from readers about your own experience curating oral histories, what was helpful about the book, and what was not. I am working on a revised edition of Curating Oral Histories and will expand the content a great deal.

Always happy to hear from readers.

[amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short (80-page) overview of key concepts in accessioning, processing, preserving, and providing access to oral history collections, followed by the meat of the matter: case studies, example documentation (forms, workflows, protocols, checklists) and a glossary. Fine as a quick introduction but would be much more useful as a reference work for project planning.

[Nancy Mackay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am currently revising this book. The new editions will be out fall 2015.

[DW]

A good overview. Ideal for new people working with oral histories and wanting a plan with lots of detail.