Barbara W Sommer - Planning a Community Oral History Project

Planning a Community Oral History Project

COMMUNITY ORAL HISTORY TOOLKIT

Nancy MacKay Mary Kay Quinlan Barbara W. Sommer

This five-volume boxed set is the definitive guide to all aspects of successfully conducting community projects that conform to best practices in the field of oral history. What are the fundamental principles that make one oral history project fly and another falter? The existing oral history methodology literature has traditionally focused on conducting academic research. In contrast, the Toolkit is specifically geared toward helping people develop and implement oral history projects in schools, service agencies, historical societies, community centers, churches, and other community settings. The five concise volumes, authored by leaders in the oral history field, offer down-to-earth advice on every step of the project, provide numerous examples of successful projects, and include forms that you can adapt to your specific needs. Together, these volumes are your consultant in a box, offering the tools you need to successfully launch and complete your community oral history project.

Volume 1: Introduction to Community Oral History, by Mary Kay Quinlan with Nancy MacKay and Barbara W. Sommer

Volume 2: Planning a Community Oral History Project, by Barbara W. Sommer with Nancy MacKay and Mary Kay Quinlan

Volume 3: Managing a Community Oral History Project , by Barbara W. Sommer with Nancy MacKay and Mary Kay Quinlan

Volume 4: Interviewing in Community Oral History , by Mary Kay Quinlan with Nancy MacKay and Barbara W. Sommer

Volume 5: After the Interview in Community Oral History, by Nancy MacKay with Mary Kay Quinlan and Barbara W. Sommer

Community Oral History Toolkit

NANCY MACKAY MARY KAY QUINLAN BARBARA W. SOMMER

VOLUME 2

Barbara W. Sommer
with Nancy MacKay
and Mary Kay Quinlan

First published 2013 by Left Coast Press, Inc.

Published 2016 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
MacKay, Nancy, 1945
Community oral history toolkit / Nancy MacKay, Mary Kay Quinlan, and Barbara W. Sommer
5 v.; cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: v. 1. Introduction to community oral history / by Mary Kay Quinlan with Nancy MacKay and Barbara W. Sommer -- v. 2. Planning a community oral history project / by Barbara W. Sommer, with Nancy MacKay and Mary Kay Quinlan -- v. 3. Managing a community oral history project / by Barbara W. Sommer with Nancy MacKay and Mary Kay Quinlan -- v. 4. Interviewing in community oral history / by Mary Kay Quinlan with Nancy MacKay and Barbara W. Sommer -- v. 5. After the interview in community oral history / by Nancy MacKay with Mary Kay Quinlan and Barbara W. Sommer.
ISBN 978-1-59874-408-8 (complete set - pbk.: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-688-8 (complete set - consumer ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-241-5 (volume 1 - pbk.: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-689-5 (volume 1 - consumer ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-244-6 (volume 2 - pbk.: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-690-1 (volume 2 - consumer ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-247-7 (volume 3 - pbk.: paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-691-8 (volume 3 - consumer ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-250-7 (volume 4 - pbk.: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-692-5 (volume 4 - consumer ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-253-8 (volume 5 - pbk.: alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-61132-693-2 (volume 5 - consumer ebook)
1. Oral history--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Oral history--Methodology. 3. Interviewing--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 4. Local history--Methodology. I. Quinlan, Mary Kay. II. Sommer, Barbara W. III. Title.
D16.14.M22 2012
907.2--dc23

2012026513

978-1-61132-244-6 Paperback

The five Toolkit volumes take you through the steps involved in collecting first-person information in an interview setting. The volumes cover how to identify people who are witnesses to or participants in an event or way of life, how to interview them, and how to document context to help users understand the full meaning of the interviews. They also provide guidelines for preserving the interview information and making it available to others. This volume, Volume 2, focuses on the planning steps to help you successfully prepare to do these tasks.

Standard definitions of planning state it is a process for developing a scheme, program, or method that is designed to accomplish a purpose or a goal. Applying this definition of planning to oral history, the purpose of planning is to propose a process or structure for doing and supporting the interviews. Planning includes determining a mission or purpose, identifying interviewees, developing a proposed budget or project value, identifying support options, reviewing and recommending recording equipment, and determining administrative needs. An oral history plan lays out the steps through which a general idea becomes a focused set of interviews.

Project planners define a project and identify what will be needed to carry it out. They lay out a blueprint, so to speak, for a project structure. Regardless of the size of a project or the number of interviewees under consideration, this blueprint provides a guide for doing oral history interviews.

My co-authors and I have many people to thank for helping develop this planning volume. First are the responders to our survey, more about which is said in the Methodology section in ; their voices are included throughout the volume. Thank you to Jesse Heinzen, Multimedia Director, Minnesota Historical Society, for thorough and careful review and comment on equipment information. Thank you to Michael J. Lansing, Associate Professor of History at Augsburg College, for his and his public history students input, to Carol Ahlgren, co-director of the Modern Masters Oral History Project, and to Roy Chan, Project Director, Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project, for their review of the Toolkit and their comments. Thank you to Mitch Allen, founder of Left Coast Press, Inc. for his support of this project. And thank you to our editor, Stefania Van Dyke, our copyeditor, Louise Bell, and our designer Lisa Devenish. Their editorial and design work is greatly appreciated, both on the individual volumes and on the Toolkit as a set of five interrelated volumes. Finally, this Toolkit gave me the opportunity to work on another publication with Mary Kay Quinlan and to work with Nancy MacKay for the first time. Our many telephone calls, meetings, and emails strengthened the Toolkit volumes, including Volume 2, Planning a Community Oral History Project.