RE: Oral history

The Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania is currently conducting a
substantial oral history effort collecting interviews with long standing
members of the city's Italian American community as part of a larger
artifact collecting initiative. As the curator of this project, I have put
together a sizable bibliography as well as a series of guidelines for
conducting oral history interviews and planning oral history projects.
Anyone interested in receiving some of this information can contact me off
the list at [log in to unmask]


Those interested in learning about oral history should consult the following
works, considering to be four of the leading practical texts in the field.

Cullom Davis et al. Oral History: From Tape to Type. Am Lib. Assoc., 1977.

Donald Ritchie. Doing Oral History. Twayne, 1995.

Paul Thompson. The Voice of the Past: Oral History. Oxford, 1978.

Mike Frisch. A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning in Oral and
Public History. SUNY, 1990.


The Oral History Association (OHA) is the leading organization overseeing
the field of oral history.  Like many similar organizations, the OHA holds
an annual conference in which practitioners of oral history present findings
on their works.  There are also a number of regional OHA chapters.  For more
information on this group, visit their website at
http://omega.dickinson.edu/organizations/oha/


Academically, the oldest and most respected oral history program is centered
at Columbia University and can be contacted through the university website.
They also house the largest oral history repository of tapes and transcripts
and offer an intensive summer program in oral history theory and
methodology.


Nicholas P. Ciotola
Curator, Italian American Collection
Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center
Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
1212 Smallman Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
(412) 454-6433
www.wpaitalians.com

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