The Oral History Manual, Fourth Edition, is a comprehensive and user-friendly book designed to take novice or experienced oral historians through the entire life cycle of creating an oral history project, from idea through planning, interviewing, caring for, and making oral history interviews accessible. It includes updated information on: evolving technology, including the use of--and challenges associated with--automated transcription apps; ethical and practical considerations related to oral history and social justice, including interviews with people experiencing trauma; and challenges associated with real-time interviews conducted in the wake of natural and human-caused disasters. It emphasizes that an oral historian's work is not finished when the recorder is turned off, describing in detail the importance of fully processing and preserving oral histories and related materials. The book emphasizes the importance of oral history practitioners providing context for their work so researchers and others who encounter the materials in the future will understand fully the circumstances in which the oral histories were created. The Oral History Manual, Fourth Edition also provides readers background on the evolution of oral history practice and includes appendices with sample forms that oral historians will find useful as they develop their own projects.
Barbara W. Sommer, M.A., BWS Associates, has over forty years of experience in the public history and oral history fields. She has been principal investigator and director of more than thirty major community oral history projects on topics ranging from healthcare to the arts and has taught oral history in post-secondary and community settings. She has been a presenter at state, national, and international conferences, and is a long-time member of the Oral History Association (OHA) where she has served in several leadership positions. She is the author and co-author of many books and articles including a number of oral history publications, several in multiple editions. She wrote her award-winning book Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota (2008, re-issued in paperback in 2022) and her book, Quilt House: The International Quilt Study Center & Museum (2012) based on, and using information from, oral history projects she led. She holds degrees from Carleton College and the University of Minnesota. Mary Kay Quinlan, Ph.D., is associate dean emerita at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she taught for 20 years. Quinlan also has taught or team-taught journalism, oral history, and American history classes at UNL, the University of Maryland, Nebraska Wesleyan, and Doane University. Before turning to the classroom, Quinlan had a 15-year career as a newspaper reporter, primarily as a Washington correspondent for the Omaha World-Herald and Gannett News Service, during which time she served as president of the National Press Club. She has been active in regional and national oral history activities for many years and has served as editor of the Oral History Association Newsletter since 1993. Quinlan's oral history background includes conducting workshops, teaching, and co-authoring (with Barbara W. Sommer and others) several oral history publications, and she has presented at regional, national and international conferences. Quinlan earned a bachelor's degree in journalism and French from UNL, a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in American studies, also from Maryland. In 2022 she was inducted into the Nebraska Women Journalists Hall of fame.
The Oral History Manual sits on my office shelf, never gathering dust, because when I need an oral history reminder, I check it first. --Troy Reeves, Oral Historian; UW-Madison Archives & Records Management Services; President, Oral History Association, 2024-2025 The Oral History Manual is a thorough and thoughtful guide that puts ethics at the heart of every step of the oral history process. It incorporates new ideas and examples that illustrate why oral history is such a dynamic methodology in the 21st century. Useful and inspiring for novice and veteran oral history practitioners alike." --Lu Ann Jones, National Park Service historian (retd.) The Oral History Manual provides my students, in the most understandable terms, the functional scaffolding of an oral history project. --Matt Jones, Coordinator, EMU Archives Oral History Program, Eastern Michigan University.
