Tag: collecting

Thinking Big: Guha Shankar

This episode of “Thinking Big” features Guha Shankar, Folklife Specialist at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. Shankar discusses the role of digital recording technologies in contemporary oral history fieldwork.   Tweet

Permanent link to this article: /2012/07/thinking-big-guha-shankar/

Using video in oral history

Case Study: Using video in oral history— learning from one woman’s experiences by Joanna Hay To video or not to video, that is the question. Oral historians continue to discuss the use of video: its benefits and its pitfalls. There are significant additional costs and technical challenges with video, and oral historians are justifiably cautious …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/using-video-in-oral-history/

Oral History, Folklore, and Vernacular Architecture

Case Study: Oral History, Folklore, and Vernacular Architecture by Janet C. Gilmore and Troy Reeves This document arose from discussions, both in-person and electronic, between Gilmore and Troy Reeves. Reeves, who has led oral history activities at UW-Madison since 2007 and has served as a contributor to the OHDA grant, asked her to respond to …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/oral-history-folklore-and-vernacular-architecture/

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/designing-a-national-online-oral-history-collecting-initiative/

Achieving Good Audio

Achieving Good Audio Recording Levels by Doug Boyd It is of paramount importance to monitor recording levels during the digital recording of an oral history interview. The dynamic range of a recorder or a microphone is the range between the highest level and the lowest level (the noise floor) of sound that can be captured. …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/achieving-good-audio/

The Art of Lighting for Recording Video

The Art of Lighting for Recording Video Oral History Interviews by Doug Boyd To capture professional looking video, you do not need expensive equipment. However, you do need to understand how your camera sees the scene. A digital video camera sees differently from the human eye and it needs light to process images. Professional photographers …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/the-art-of-lighting-for-recording-video/

Understanding Microphones

Understanding Microphones by Charles Hardy and Doug Boyd Choosing the appropriate microphone for your interview is just as important as choosing the right recorder.  Different microphones serve very different purposes and will yield very different results. For decades, oral historians have been recommending the use of external microphones in order to achieve high-quality results.  Even …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/understanding-microphones/

Digital Audio Recording: The Basics

Digital Audio Recording: The Basics by Doug Boyd In the context of audio, “analog” refers to the method of representing a sound wave with voltage fluctuations that are analogous to the pressure fluctuations of the sound wave. Analog fluctuations are infinitely varying rather than the discrete changes at sample time associated with digital recording. Simply …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/digital-audio-recording/

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/no-one-wants-the-maintenance-crew-named-after-them/

On the Differences between Folklore Fieldwork and Oral History

On the Differences between Folklore Fieldwork and Oral History by Tim Lloyd The ethnographic research activities of folklorists–generally called “fieldwork”–have a number of important differences from, as well as similarities to, the research activities of oral historians–generally called “interviewing”. In general, we might say that folklorists are most fundamentally interested in those occasions, practices, and …

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: /2012/06/on-the-differences-between-folklore-fieldwork-and-oral-history/