Attend the oral history workshops (over two weekends) in interviewing and recording oral histories. Visit the Oral History Centre to get an overview of the various processes involved. Become familiar with the ‘Oral History in NZ’ journal. Discuss what I have learned and achieved and how I might use this new knowledge and skills in the Professional Development Wiki/Blog.
BOK 5 - Organisation, Retrieval & Conservation of Information.
BOK 7 - Information & Communication Technologies.
Oral History Workshop 1 : Essentials of Oral History (Saturday 25th August, 2012) with Judith Fyfe and Lynette Shum
Ever since I interviewed my grandfather, James Patrick Joyce, as part of a course at Teacher's Training College back in the late 1980's, I have been interested in doing more. Seeing as one of the tasks of my Professional Training Plan (PTP) is to address knowledge and skills gaps not required for my job as an indexer, and seeing as the Alexander Turnbull Library (as part of the National Library of NZ) offers workshops, I decided to enrol in the first of the two workshops.
The first thing I learned was that recording is now digital, not analog. The second thing I learned was that, where as I am intending to create an oral history through interviewing my mother, Margaret Gray, there is a whole other, professional level of oral history that is being practiced. Either way this workshop caters for all.
Over the course of the day (9am - 4.30pm) we covered the value and methods of oral history, the equipment and recodning techniques, the selection of interviewees, the research required, setting up and recording the interview, making the material accessible, agreement and information forms, and abstracting. Unfortunately we were not able to cover storage.
The most informative parts of the days were the opportunities to complete practical exercises using the actual recording equipment in a, albeit contrived, interview situation. By going throught the process of setting up the recording equipment and actually asking and reacting to staged interview questions we were able to get a good feel for what we would have to do and watch out for when we came to the real thing, from the beginning, through the middle and to the end of the interview. I think we all appreciated who important it was to get the levels on the microphones right before you start the interview proper.
Also most informative were the agreement and information forms involved. The information forms serve to give the interviewer the background they require to get the most out of the interview by knowing a good, general amount of information about the subject before you start so they have a context to work within. The agreement forms, while perhaps not immediately applicable to my own situation wanting to informally interview my mother, they are worth knowing about if I wanted to do something like donate it to the Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL) and needed to consider the publication wishes of my subject.
In terms of how I might use this new knowledge and these new skills I am intending to carry out an oral history interview with my mother, possibly hiring a digital recorder from the ATL to use, in the near future during which I will have the opportunity to practice such knowledge and skills. At this stage I have only enrolled in the first workshop as I am not certain when I will be able to begin interviewing, let alone have enough to take to the second workshop at the end of September which looks at reviewing oral interview work completed.
One final comment I would like to make was how I noticed after the event that there was no chance to evaluate or reflect on what we had learned. Not only is this a good way to solidify the new learning in the participants but it is an opportunity to reflect on the positives, negatives and interesting aspects of the course for the benefit of the provider(s). If we ran out of time to cover the 'storage' aspects of the recordings, I wonder if we also ran out of time for the course evaluation?
If I had have had the opportunity for evaluation I would have said some along the lines of "a most worthwhile workshop, both entertaining and informative, leaving one with all of the information one needs to begin as an oral historian."
'Oral History in NZ' journal
In order to become familiar with the 'Oral History in NZ' journal, the annual publication of the National Oral History Association of New Zealand, Te Kete Korero-a-Waha o te Motu (NOHANZ), I loaned the previous three issues from the National Library of New Zealand to peruse when I found the time out of my busy work schedule to do so. What struck me, as first one week, then another, slipped by with the three issues remaining unread on my desk, was the fact that one of the journals I was 'hoarding' was requested twice by other people, suggesting a hither unrealised (to me anyway) popularity and usefulness. When the time finally came to look through them I did so with a sense of intrigue as to why they might be so popular.
Ever since I interviewed my grandfather, James Patrick Joyce, as part of a course at Teacher's Training College back in the late 1980's, I have been interested in doing more. Seeing as one of the tasks of my Professional Training Plan (PTP) is to address knowledge and skills gaps not required for my job as an indexer, and seeing as the Alexander Turnbull Library (as part of the National Library of NZ) offers workshops, I decided to enrol in the first of the two workshops.
The first thing I learned was that recording is now digital, not analog. The second thing I learned was that, where as I am intending to create an oral history through interviewing my mother, Margaret Gray, there is a whole other, professional level of oral history that is being practiced. Either way this workshop caters for all.
Over the course of the day (9am - 4.30pm) we covered the value and methods of oral history, the equipment and recodning techniques, the selection of interviewees, the research required, setting up and recording the interview, making the material accessible, agreement and information forms, and abstracting. Unfortunately we were not able to cover storage.
The most informative parts of the days were the opportunities to complete practical exercises using the actual recording equipment in a, albeit contrived, interview situation. By going throught the process of setting up the recording equipment and actually asking and reacting to staged interview questions we were able to get a good feel for what we would have to do and watch out for when we came to the real thing, from the beginning, through the middle and to the end of the interview. I think we all appreciated who important it was to get the levels on the microphones right before you start the interview proper.
Also most informative were the agreement and information forms involved. The information forms serve to give the interviewer the background they require to get the most out of the interview by knowing a good, general amount of information about the subject before you start so they have a context to work within. The agreement forms, while perhaps not immediately applicable to my own situation wanting to informally interview my mother, they are worth knowing about if I wanted to do something like donate it to the Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL) and needed to consider the publication wishes of my subject.
In terms of how I might use this new knowledge and these new skills I am intending to carry out an oral history interview with my mother, possibly hiring a digital recorder from the ATL to use, in the near future during which I will have the opportunity to practice such knowledge and skills. At this stage I have only enrolled in the first workshop as I am not certain when I will be able to begin interviewing, let alone have enough to take to the second workshop at the end of September which looks at reviewing oral interview work completed.
One final comment I would like to make was how I noticed after the event that there was no chance to evaluate or reflect on what we had learned. Not only is this a good way to solidify the new learning in the participants but it is an opportunity to reflect on the positives, negatives and interesting aspects of the course for the benefit of the provider(s). If we ran out of time to cover the 'storage' aspects of the recordings, I wonder if we also ran out of time for the course evaluation?
If I had have had the opportunity for evaluation I would have said some along the lines of "a most worthwhile workshop, both entertaining and informative, leaving one with all of the information one needs to begin as an oral historian."
'Oral History in NZ' journal
In order to become familiar with the 'Oral History in NZ' journal, the annual publication of the National Oral History Association of New Zealand, Te Kete Korero-a-Waha o te Motu (NOHANZ), I loaned the previous three issues from the National Library of New Zealand to peruse when I found the time out of my busy work schedule to do so. What struck me, as first one week, then another, slipped by with the three issues remaining unread on my desk, was the fact that one of the journals I was 'hoarding' was requested twice by other people, suggesting a hither unrealised (to me anyway) popularity and usefulness. When the time finally came to look through them I did so with a sense of intrigue as to why they might be so popular.
The first thing I noticed was the prevalence of Maori articles and reports which, upon reflection, makes perfect sense knowing what I know of the importance of the oral tradition in Maoridom. Next I noticed the balance between articles concerning the oral history of individuals and reports showing the different ways oral history can be used and various issues that arise in oral historian's methods of work. A nice blend of the 'how to' with the results. I noticed too how my attention always went straight to the photographs if there were any, and then to the names of the people involved. A series of book reviews can be found at the end of each issue along with the NOHANZ origins, objectives, and Code of ethical and technical practice (this gave the practice of the oral historian an air of professionalism I had previously not considered).
As the origin of this requirement was my own interest in oral history (I had interviewed my Grandfather Jim Joyce as part of a Social Studies course I took at Wellington Teacher's Training College when I was training as a primary school teacher) I looked through these issues looking for anything that would peak my interest and desire to push me to carry out the idea I had of conducting an oral history interview with my mother, Margaret.
In terms of how I might use the new knowledge gained from this journal the first article that I noticed was one on using third party interviews as sources (vol. 22, 2010) which made me consider the possibility of being able to look up any relevant information (not necessarily interviews) there may be about Mum e.g., newspaper clippings about her winning a nursing award, or a radio interview with her talking about her role in the Little People of New Zealand support group. A second article looked at the need to strike a balance between asking searching questions and treating the interviewee with respect (vol. 21, 2009). A third article looking at the significance of the surrounding and the use of photographs (vol. 21, 2009) caught my eye in relation to my earlier comment about how my attention always went to the photographs in an article first reinforcing my wish to do the same in whatever I end up producing with Mum (even this blog could do with a few my images). Finally I noticed in one article (vol. 23, 2011) the use of actual parts of the interview and specific quotes of the interviewee which seemed to bring the subject to life as you were reading what was actually being said at the time of the interview, in the words of the people involved.
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