Library of Congress Learning Page: Using Oral History: Lesson Overview

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Lesson Overview

Using Oral History

Student Lesson

Section 4: Background Research for Oral History Interviews

Once your group has chosen a research topic for further study, you will begin planning to conduct oral history interviews yourselves. To plan the interviews, you must decide which questions to ask about your topic. To give you some ideas for questions to ask, look for two or three oral histories that relate to your research topic. Search in the American Memory collection American Life Histories, 1936-1940, and in other sources if you have time.

Here are some steps to help your group organize an on-line search about your research topic:

Before you begin searching on-line, decide on key words to use in your search. Start with the most detailed search words you can. For example, search for square dancing rather than dancing, or women workers in packinghouses rather than women workers to get more focused results.
If your topic is very broad, you may get hundreds of search results. Broad searches often identify documents unrelated to your research topic. Either narrow your research topic or be prepared to skim through documents quickly.
Once you find two or three documents about your research topic, you will have enough information to decide if you have selected a good research topic, and to begin planning your interview questions.

When you have found several documents about your research topic, read them as a group. Then go ahead to Guidelines for Oral History Interviews.

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Last updated 09/26/2002