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It may be that finding a person to interview is not a concern for you, but if it is, we would offer that you think about someone who has inspired or intrigued you or someone who can speak to the experience of a specific place, time or community. Keep in mind that certain narrators might also become project partners who can provide resources of various forms, including access to individuals who might be less responsive to a cold call.
Once you have identified an individual whom you wish to interview, the next step will be to contact them to discuss your project and obtain their approval to participate. This is an important phase in the process as it is your first opportunity to build trust and help your narrator feel less vulnerable. Do not underestimate the role of anxiety in the oral history transaction! It is, first and foremost, your obligation as an oral historian to make your narrator feel safe and to assure them that your process will be governed by a mutually agreed upon ethical standard at every step. To that end, the Oral History Association Statement on Ethics is available here, and many of the best practices that it describes are interwoven into this guide.
In these early conversations, also do your best to find an interview location - be it in person or over Zoom - that is quiet and free from distraction. In many cases, a narrator’s home may be the only real option for the interview but, if so, do your best to ensure that the interview is one-on-one, as the presence of other people in the interview setting, more often than not, will prove problematic. Also communicate to your narrator that the interview itself may run for at least sixty minutes, but potentially a fair bit longer. Generally speaking, we target ninety minutes for a full life history interview, though we have also conducted individual sessions that lasted in excess of three hours.
Lastly, it will often be helpful to obtain a copy of your narrator’s resume or, in the case of an academic, curriculum vitae. Ask for a document of this sort early on, as it will usually prove invaluable to your preparations. Of course, other resources will surely assist your research process, including content that you find online or through resources like LinkedIn. Likewise, if your narrator has a connection to an organization that hosts an archive, be certain to seek out any records (on them specifically or on institutional experiences that they may have shared) that might be accessible from that angle. It is important to note however, that there shouldn’t usually be a need to closely detail all of the specifics of your narrator’s life prior to the interview. What is more important is to isolate major themes that you can then examine through the narrator’s eyes.