University Library

After the Interview

  1.  Communicate with the narrator.

    • Send a prepared email thanking the narrator again for their time and sharing their story with you. Attach a Deed of Gift form, if appropriate to the project and not already signed.

  2.  Transcribe the interview.

    • You may do this yourself, or if budget allows, send the file to a service like Rev.

    • Machine transcriptions can provide a starting point for a full transcription. If interviews were done over Zoom and recorded to the cloud, a machine transcription is automatically generated. For other files, YouTube can be used to generate a rough transcript. See "Using YouTube to Generate Free Automatic Transcriptions." 

    • Send your narrator a copy of the transcript to review.

  3.  Index the interview. 

  4.  Consider creating excerpt clips and highlight stories.

    • Excerpt clips are self-contained short excerpts that capture interesting sections of an interview. The Chicago History Museum's SoundCloud has many such clips.

    • Highlight stories are typically 2–5 minutes long and highlight the main themes or notable elements within or across interviews.

    • StoryCorps showcases a mix of excerpt clips and highlight stories.

    • The free software Audacity can be used to create clips and stories.

  5.  Provide researchers/public access to audio files, transcripts, and/or indexes.

    • If archiving your collection, transfer materials and Deed of Gift forms to the archive.

    • A website or SoundCloud account can also provide public access to the audio files. OHMS repositories can be hosted on a website. However, use these options only if your narrators have consented to public access.

Special Collections and Archives

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