Oral history

Living Archive has had more than 25 years experience of collecting oral history, using this primary source material as the inspiration for many of our projects. We offer training to those who want to both learn about interviewing techniques and how to capture people’s reminiscences in high quality audio or video recordings.

Course details

Normal courses last for a day, during which time participants learn about the golden rules of good interview technique, formulate a list of questions, practise listening and asking non-scripted questions and learn the rudiments of getting a good quality sound or video recordings. There is also a chance to jump in at the deep end by trying out your new skills on invited ‘guinea pigs’ from your local community in a half hour interviews. Digitisation and sound or video editing, transcribing and/ or transcription methods are discussed as are matters of Copyright and Deposit Instructions. There is also a demonstration of creative uses of oral history recordings, websites and digital stories.

Courses can be up to 12 people for interviewing and audio recording and 8 for interviewing and video recording.

Extra sessions can be arranged for digital sound or video editing if needed. There is also a demonstration of creative used of oral history recording, websites and digital stories. Contact us for further details including costs.