| There are many ways to provide
online access to digital oral history.
One method is to embed the information directly
into HTML. This can be as simple as an organized
list of links, as on the Tampa-Hillsborough
County Public Library System's Hillsborough Remembers site. Or
the pages can be crafted more elaborately, as the
interview with
Audrey McNight and Norma Turner on the Flagler County
Public Library's Verbal
History site.
Advantages of this method are:
- Requires no software beyond the web server
- Simple for those who know how to build Web pages
- Versatile presentation, allowing links to audio,
video and images
- Easily indexed by Google
Any library or archive with an online catalog system
can include records for oral histories. The
catalog record can include the URL of the main Web
page for the oral history, or separate URLs pointing
to transcripts, audio, video and so on. It
should include a searchable genre term "oral
history" to allow searchers to find all oral
histories, or limit a subject search to only oral
histories.
Advantages of this method are:
- Oral histories are
integrated with the rest of the institution's collections
- Searchers interested in people or topics can
find oral histories along with other materials
- Search capability is useful for collections
to large for effective browsing
Online catalogs and web pages can work together. For
example, the catalog record can link to the Web page
that organizes the parts of the oral history. Or,
if there are several interviews on the same topic
(e.g. the Korean War, or the Redevelopment of Main
Street) these can be described with a collection
level record that points to a Web page listing all
the interviews on the topic. The University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has a library
catalog record for every interview
done by the Southern Oral History Program, giving
an alternate means of access to these materials.
Many libraries, archives and museums have digital
asset management systems combining search and retrieval
with multimedia presentation capabilities. The
Florida Voices demonstration
collection uses the DigiTool application from
the Ex Libris corporation to integrate textual transcripts
and audio. Tufts University uses the open
source Fedora application as a basis for their digital
library system, which supports several oral history
collections such as Lost
Theatres of Somerville.
Advantages of this method are:
- Combines keyword search and retrieval with multimedia
support
- Scales well for large collections
- May provide mechanisms to control or restrict
access
For more examples, visit the oral history websites
in the Digital
Oral History Section of the Directory
of oral history collections, programs & resources. |
