Oral History Preservation

Robyn Pierce - Oral History: Preservation and Access

Definition of Project

Oral histories are a large part of how we document history. They are a tool that if tapped can bring understanding and representation to history. This annotated bibliography provides resources which examine how those recordings are made accessible. There are many ways that researchers may search for what they are looking for and oral history collections and curators need to stay relevant by creating access. Using words like “preservation,” “metadata,” “searchability,” “oral histories,” “schemas,” and “born digital” I was able to find information about the newest techniques for preserving oral histories. Taking a look at what is being used, what works, and what researchers need and expect helps to define what is the best practice for curating and providing access to things like oral histories. The articles chosen for this bibliography were published in scholarly journals centric on digital libraries and oral history preservation. I was able to find information that was relatively up to date for this bibliography; the date range for these articles are 2009 to 2019. A couple of them are a little anecdotal in style, but all of them are very informative.

Annotations

Becker, D., & Passehl-Stoddart, E. (2015). Connecting historical and digital frontiers: Enhancing access to the Latah County oral history collection utilizing OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer) and Isotope. Code4Lib Journal, 29. https://doaj.org
This article is a discussion on the opensource plug-in Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS). OHMS is a web application that creates a time stamped, searchable item out of the transcript and recording of oral histories. This allows for researchers to find the exact point in the recording where the keyword was spoken. The project that they used this program for was a collection of 300 oral histories from the 1970s. This article goes through the process of migrating metadata into OHMS and the creation of the web the interface creating more access. Recently created oral histories are generally born digital, but there are many earlier recordings that need to be digitized and preserved. Oral histories are complex to curate as they contain more than one component. These components may consist of the recording, the transcript, and the abstract or index. All of these components need to be connected with structural metadata. The article does into to detail about the transcriptions that were extracted from the original documentation and then converted into an HTML tag format. The OHMS program provides a complex search option that allows researchers to find a word within the recording that pertains to their search. OHMS combines the use of XML and PHP to allow for the most robust searching. It allows for keywords to be paired with the timestamp of where it can be found within the recording. This innovative application gives a baseline for the current process of creating and adding metadata to oral histories.

Boyd, D. (2013). OHMS: Enhancing access to oral history for free. The Oral History Review, 40(1), 95–106. JSTOR. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43863460
The OMHS was established in 2008, it gives oral histories a searchable aspect by bringing researchers to the keyword where it is spoken within the recording. Oral histories pose different challenges than regular data when it comes to preserving and curating. One of the main hurdles is that oral histories are multi-part objects, or a package of information in varying formats. They may contain a recording in video and audio formats, as well as the transcript and each object’s metadata. OMHS was created to help the user find what they are looking for in the transcript and also to pinpoint exactly when the keyword or passage occurs in the recording. OMHS consists of two parts, the synchronizer and the viewer and when they work together, they are able to connect the researcher with the keywords desired both in the transcript and in the recording. This article describes the nuances of the OMHS program, and also lays out a general cost of transcription of oral histories. One can assume that if an institution provided the time, effort and financial support needed to transcribe the oral histories’ contents, they would want to ensure that these resources would be provided with the most access possible for their users. OMHS helps to provide increased access by allowing for the indexing of the transcripts that is more cost effective. This helps the researcher to connect in a way that they have not been able to before. “The search is always on for ways to help develop new kinds of metadata that not only capture the informed perspective of the archivist but also reach out to the worldwide audience that is beginning to use archived materials,” (p105). The author makes the point that they are aware of the limitations of what is currently available, but that understanding will allow them to be more open to the next big thing that will help move oral history metadata into the next phase, that starts with OHMS.

Boyd, D. A., Fernheimer, J. W., & Dixon, R. (2015). Indexing as engaging oral history research: Using OHMS to “Compose History” in the writing classroom. The Oral History Review, 42(2), 352–367. https://doi.org/10.1093/ohr/ohv053
Oral histories are a great teaching tool, it is another layer to understanding history from the perspective of the people that were there. This article focuses on a collaboration between the Louse B. Nunn Center for Oral Histories and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky. They used the OHMS to help index oral histories for pedagogical use. Creating access to the oral histories in this way helps teachers create meaningful assignments and discussion points, maximizing the students learning outcome. By using students to facilitate the archiving, they utilized OHMS and were able to make changes in how they housed the oral histories. “In 2014, the Nunn Center indexed over nine hundred hours of oral history interviews for one tenth the cost of transcription,” (Boyd, 2015). This highlights the tremendous advantage OHMS gives to the archival process of oral histories. The indexes and the searchable transcripts add an important aspect to researching the oral histories. You can search the transcripts for specific words and indexing helps to connect the researcher with other versions of the words that are used in the recording. This article outlines the process in which the two entities from the University of Kentucky worked together to add the indexing portion of the program.

Cohen, S. (2019). Shifting questions: New paradigms for oral history in a digital world. The Oral History Review, 40(1), 154-167. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://www-jstor-org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/stable/43863464?pq-origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
The article focuses on the Oral History in the Digital Age (OHDA) Project, a collaborative project spearheaded by the Oral History Association. Through this project there were a set of materials created to aid anyone with digital technology and curation of oral histories. Having oral histories online and accessible creates reach. There is a different experience between listening to an oral history and reading a transcript thus making it important for both aspects to be accessible. When the recording is digitized there is more opportunity to share it. The author argues that creating access that connects patrons and researchers with the content that will resonate with them is just as important as putting the content online. Creating connection is done by providing metadata as well as providing the digitized recordings. Finding a way to convey that the content is worth the listen will help to create more connection. One suggestion that is presented here is that the metadata be updated periodically to reflect the changes in society, this will help with research as the keywords that are being used might change over time.

Matusiak, K., Tyler, A., Newton, C., Polepeddi, P. (2017) Finding access and digital preservation solutions for a digitized oral history project: A case study. Digital Library Perspectives 33(2), 88-89. https://search-proquest-com.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/docview/1942257525?pq-origsite=summon
This case study is an examination of the different, affordable, digital preservation solutions. Digitization of oral histories helps to preserve the content long term. Older histories that have been stored on cassette tapes are prone to deteriorate quickly. Technology has come a long way in recording, but there is still a need to digitize and preserve in a way that make them accessible. If an institution has limited resources, they are less likely to tackle an oral history collection for digitization. There is a lot of time, effort, and digital space that is needed to digitize. Open source CMSs (content management systems) and other preservation services can be helpful for smaller institutions to take on these kinds of projects. This case study looks at one collection from a public library in Colorado that was digitized and migrated to Omeka. The project was worked on by LIS students from the local university, and they created metadata and uploaded the files to the CMS. The metadata standard that was imposed here was the Metadata Object Description Schema (MODS). Omeka’s interface is easy enough to use, and easy to edit the metadata and the content. Omeka gives the owner of the content some options with configuration for presentation on the website. Considering that Omeka is an open source program, there is a lot of flexibility for giving content access. One of the downfalls of the project was that if any file failed to upload to Omeka for any reason the process would need to be started again. To mitigate this, the team working on the project uploaded the files and the metadata separate. Another challenge was that Omeka uses Dublin Core, so the original MODS metadata needed to be converted to be beneficial for access. Unfortunately, Dublin Core has a limited amount of metadata elements, so it is not as accessible as other schemas. The article concludes by pointing out that digital collections are fickle, they need to be monitored to maintain accessibility and stay in compliance with the newest standards.

Royles, D. (2016). Teaching digital humanities with oral history: The Staring Out to Sea Oral history project and OHMS in the DH classroom. The Oral History Review, 43(2), 408–420. https://doi.org/10.1093/ohr/ohw051
This article about the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS), and how it enables organizations to create an accessible oral history collection. OHMS connect the keyword search to the exact moment when the word was spoken in the recording. The biggest selling point for this program is that is it not costly allowing smaller repositories to digitize and provide access to their oral histories and recordings. The project that is discussed in this article is the Staring Out to Sea Oral History Project that is a collection of oral histories of people that were affected by Hurricane Sandy done at Stockton University. The teachers that have used oral histories as an assignment and then subsequently used OHMS to create access have stated that the benefit of the program to the students is valuable. There is a level of critical thinking that is practiced during the application of the OHMS and students benefited from that aspect. This project solidified the need for digital humanities. The article goes into great detail about the Staring Out to Sea project from the conceptualization, to the uploading to an accessible site. The project completion was able to be achieved much faster once they started using OHMS. The recount is a comprehensive retelling of what went right and what they could have improved on. This is a good example of what OHMS or at least, rich oral history metadata can do for the process of creating access.

Stevens, K., & Latham, B. (2009) Giving voice to the past: Digitizing oral history. OCLC Systems & Services, 25(3), 212–220. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.lib.wayne.edu/10.1108/10650750910982593
This paper recounts the process that Jacksonville State University’s Houston Cole Library utilized to digitize and provide access to an oral history collection. The oral history collection at the Houston Cole Library started as a class assignment interviewing people that lived through historical events and consists of 285 recordings. Because of the intimacy that oral histories bring to history, there is a desire and a responsibility to bring access to them. The digitization of this collection started in 2007 during an initiative by the library to get more of the holdings accessible. This account is about the preservation and migration of material, there are some guidelines presented in this article and some insight to obstacles that might be met. The recordings were converted to .wav files for storage and then converted to MP3 for access. Inherently choosing an MP3 format means that you are sacrificing some of the sound quality, but in this instance, it was a necessary choice as it would allow for quicker download times and smaller files ultimately creating more convenient access. The collection will be stored on the AlabamaMosiac digital repository.

Turner, K. (2017) Creating history: A case study in making oral histories more accessible in the digital age. Digital Library Perspectives. 33(1). Retrieved September 17, 2020, from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1862879379?pq-origsite=summon
The University of Wisconsin Law School Library and the University of Kentucky collaborated so that the U of W could benefit from OHMS. Oral histories are a primary source that goes underutilized because it is hard to search them. Even once they are digitized it is hard to get access to them without the proper metadata assigned. Oral History in the Digital Age is a series created by the Oral History Association. It supplies a list of suggested models to help with the preservation and access of oral histories, these start at the recording or the digitization steps. There are several different programs, including Kaltura and Text-Encoding Initiative, and some others that upload the video to YouTube and allows the closed captioning to become the transcript. With the help of the OHMS, the U of W Law Library was able to tackle their tremendous oral history collection in a way that was meaningful for future researchers. While this program does not create a transcript, it makes the video searchable by adding time stamps to the recording that are arranged in a table of contents way. Additionally, if there is a transcript of the recording, it can be linked to that table of contents, making it searchable in a way that will allow the researcher to connect right to the point in the recording where the keyword was discussed. The option to add links in the index to any articles that are mentioned in the recording is a helpful aspect for continued research. This same concept is applied to any location that the subjects of the recording speaks, they can be linked to a GPS coordinate which in turn will create a link to Google maps. Creating an account with OHMS the U of W Law Library was able to upload and create access to all of their oral histories. As of the writing of this article there were a couple bugs that were persistent but still being worked on. One of those issues is OHMS having compatibility issues with Firefox and another issue included all the additions to the recording, such as those added by Kaltura, could not be seen in the final product.

Walker, I., & Halvey, M. (2017). On designing an oral history search system. Journal of Documentation, 73(6), 1281–1298. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-10-2016-0121
There are different platforms that oral histories can be stored and made accessible. Some of those platforms are YouTube, SoundCloud, and Omeka. These give the users the chance to search by using keywords that are in the transcripts of the oral history. This article takes a look at the trends of technological advances for storing oral histories by considering what the researcher is looking for, and what their needs are. A comprehensible literature review on the different facets of keeping at creating access to oral histories gives the reader the chance to get a snapshot of what is available. A case study was included in this article covering the best avenue for researchers in search of oral histories. It was found that having the transcript available for keyword searching is better suited than searchable timed abstracts. The study was conducted in a way to find the most effective way to create access to oral histories. Archivists that are trying to determine what would be the most logical program to use will find this article useful.

Weig, E., & Slone, M. (2018). SPOKEdb: Open-source information management system for oral history, Digital Library Perspectives, 34(2), 101-116. http://search.proquest.com/docview/2084341348?pq-origsite=summon
SPOKEdb was created by the University of Kentucky Libraries as an open source system for managing information. Created in 2009 it was set up to be an interface for interview level metadata. This allows for oral histories to be described richer and available for more users to connect with. SPOKEdb uses integration with OHMS (which is an application that connects keyword searches to the recording) to enable the searchability of the oral histories. There are layers to the program that allows for some restrictions on who can access what so that any embargo that is put in place can be respected. This article is a good look at all the different things that a manager can do with the oral history data to ensure accessibility, as well as what happens when there are restrictions put on the record. The other layers include Reference; that allows administrators the ability to help researchers connect with data, and the Public layer; that allows public accessibility without restrictions. There are so many facets to this program that anyone looking for information on how to manage their own oral history collection metadata would benefit from looking into it. This article even includes a technological design overview that walks a new user through some of the setup.