In the oral history toolbox

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Lucille Barrett
Lucille Barretthttps://bloggingkits.org
Future teen idol. Hardcore tv lover. Social media guru. Zombie aficionado. Travel scholar. Biker, shiba-inu lover, audiophile, Mad Men fan and proud pixelpusher. Working at the junction of minimalism and elegance to answer design problems with honest solutions. I'm fueled by craft beer, hip-hop and tortilla chips.

Throughout 2016 we’ve featured oral history #OriginStories – tales of how people from all walks of life found their way into the world of oral history and what keeps them going. Most recently, Steven Sielaff explained how oral history has enabled him to connect his love of technology and his desire to create history. Today we launch a new series called #HowToOralHistory, where we invite you to explain some small aspects of your oral history practice. Our goal is to promote best practices and appreciate the detailed work that goes into producing high-quality oral history – from researching and recording to transcribing, reviewing, editing, producing, publishing, and public presentation.

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Question: How much time should a small project budget to create a single oral history interview?

I have developed a general hourly cost schedule for use in the Baylor University Institute for Oral History, and I’ve tried to adapt it a bit for a one-person shop. I’m sure other people will have a variety of estimates depending on each oral history center’s composition and their policies regarding transcripts. Here are my results:

Calculations are in man-hours and standardized for a one-hour interview:

  • Pre-Interview Research: 4-8 hours
  • Interview: 2-4 hours for onsite, 8 for local travel, 16 for longer
  • Audio Processing/Transcription: 15-20 hours
  • Review: 2-3 month wait
  • Post-Review Edits: 5 hours
  • Final Editing: 5 hours

Total: 30-60 hours, over 3-4 months

A few notes here:

  1. I use one hour of audio as a control. Obviously, if your interviews are longer, it will require more time for certain tasks such as transcribing/editing, etc., so you can apply a multiplier based on your average length if you’d like.
  2. The prep work and actual interview time can vary wildly depending on your topic, and if you need to travel, I provided a range there. For instance, I recently completed a long interview series I conducted in my office, so my prep involved listening to the previous interview while researching the two or three topics I planned to cover next. I usually would set aside half a day for this. If you are starting a project from scratch, obviously, you will want to do more research.
  3. I typically tell people it will take five to ten hours to transcribe one hour of audio. The low end represents an experienced listener and fast typist, the high end a novice. I also built into this transcription category the time it will take to audit, check, and initially edit your work. Remember, you want to represent yourself favorably when you send any produced materials to your narrators for the first time.
  4. I included a review phase to point out how long we give our interviewees correct their transcripts. Obviously, you can not move forward until you receive the reviewed transcript back, so you will need to factor that into the overall consideration of what you can accomplish in a year, even though it might not directly be reflected in your own hours. For us, transcription review also serves as an additional ethical layer during processing, confirming the interviewee’s comfort level and willingness when it comes to presenting their interview to the world.
  5. The final two categories are for adding corrections and final editing, which means making the final product “pretty” when it comes to the overall amount of content included (updated information and/or editor notations) and the style of the document. We will currently place what we call draft transcripts online that do not include the “Final Editing” steps, so you may or may not be interested in including this final category in your calculation.

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