08 • Archiving Your Interview
35m 09s
Understand the importance of archiving your oral history interview and how to do so for our digital Story Archive.
LESSON OUTLINE
1. Why we archive
2. How we archive
a. Interview log
b. Keywords
c. Summary
d. Interview title
e. Interview checklist
f. Your interview files
3. Archiving into our Story Archive
4. What happens next with your interview
TRANSCRIPT
Lesson 08: Archiving Your Interview
Hello, and welcome back to Self Evident's oral history training and archiving program. This is our very last lesson, Lesson 08: Archiving Your Interview. So in this lesson, I'll walk you through why we archive, how we archive through our interview log, our keywords, summary, and your interview files. And then the process of archiving into our Story Archive. And then finally, what happens next with our interview?
Why we archive
So why do we even archive? Well, when you think about it, archives provide us with the raw materials, through our audio recordings, our photos, and our relationships and perspectives to stitch together our memories into a wider history and story. And so, as a growing archive of Asian American stories, this digital Story Archive aims to become a growing primary resource for unfiltered representation from the grassroots, from our everyday lives.
This archive also aims to build a home for the personal stories that make up our larger histories of our families, our communities, and this country. From longtime Asian Americans learning about traditions and history brought over from Asia, to recent Asian immigrants talking about how they experienced that same history being made today, to potential immigrants accessing a more direct understanding about how life can be in the United States, all the way to Asian Americans across this entire spectrum of heritage, navigating what it means for them to live as Americans moving forward.
And so we imagine all of these stories in this Story Archive being integrated into school curricula, television, movies, media, your own community oral history projects, for people far beyond the Asian American communities to learn firsthand about the wide range of experiences of Asian Americans.
And so, the way that we organize our archive gives us a roadmap, gives future learners, researchers, media makers a roadmap to access the past and draw conclusions from what they find. So we want people to find and use this archive as a resource for a vast range of learning— of learning about a vast range of Asian American experiences. So we want to think about archives in two different ways.
First, we want to think of them as a storage, as a storage for our past and our present, so that we can plan for the future starting from the present. So, let me back up a little bit. So here we are today in 2022, we have all of these stories that led up to where we are today. And we want to build this archive and build this home for these stories to live in, and continue into the future for us to learn from what we already have. And even though we've never seen these histories in school, museums, it doesn't mean that they're not there. In fact, there's tons. There's tons that we can pull from, we can learn from. And we want this archive to be a home for those stories.
We also want to think about archives as reconstructing the past from the future. So as people look back into this archive, all the stories, the memories, the perspectives, the contexts, they're piecing together an idea of what the past was like, that led up to where they are today, in the future. And so, not only does this give us an idea of what the past was like, but these ideas of the past can also spur action and ideas from us as we're reinterpreting these past materials. And we can use— we can use these stories from the past and put them together with our present stories, present-day stories and build collective action towards what we hope for and dream for in the future.
And so, this is how we are coming into our digital Story Archive, both as a storage of our past and a reconstruction of our past as we continue and imagine the future ahead of us.
How we archive
So we have some big dreams for this archive and we want to do it together with you. And the way that we archive and the way that we organize our materials, when there's so much, is going to be so important to prevent backlog of our materials, which can be so common in archives. We've seen so many stories and memories from people building up in archives and not— and we've seen understaffed cultural institutions, archives who don't have enough capacity to properly archive and allow for people to search and find these materials and learn from them.
And so today in this lesson, I'm also going to walk you through how we are organizing our archive, so that you can help out our team here at Self Evident to organize this growing archive with us. It's a collaborative effort to build and grow this collective home for all of our stories.
So in this lesson, I'm going to walk you through how to process your interview, so that you can submit it as an archive entry in our digital Story Archive. So we're going to walk through how to do an interview log, finding your keywords, putting together an interview summary, and then how you organize your interview files.
INTERVIEW LOG
First, let's start with the interview log. So the interview log is kind of like a table of contents for the interview. It tells us when and what different topics were discussed throughout the interview.
So we start with a timestamp. A timestamp is when the narrator begins talking about a topic. And then a log, that goes right next to the timestamp, is the topic that your narrator is talking about at that time. When we are able to look back on an interview log and see exactly when in the interview our narrator talks about a particular topic, this can be particularly helpful for future research, learning, and production purposes. This is also your way of telling future researchers and producers and learners what topics you felt were important to highlight in the interview, and also the topics that your narrator thought was important to include in their stories.
Start with a shorthand log
So you want to start with a shorthand log because this is just little notes, almost like little post-it notes to remind you of what they talked about at this time, without needing to listen back on the interview. So you really don't have to worry about grammar or spelling or full sentences at this time with your shorthand log. But how you want to get started is that you want to listen through to the full interview again, and then you want to start with jotting down notes of your timestamps when new topics come up, who is speaking with your narrator's or your initials, and then words and phrases of new topics or any related details that stick out to you in that timeframe.
And a helpful hint for you that has worked for me in the past is that whenever the interviewer, so probably you, asks a new question, this is usually the start of a new topic. So it's probably right around that time that you'll take a new log because your narrator will start talking about a new topic.
A good rule to keep in mind as you're going through your interview and taking your log is that there's usually a new log or topic coming up every five to seven minutes. So if you haven't taken a log in about five to seven minutes, maybe go back another five minutes, another seven minutes to see if you missed something.
So let's practice taking shorthand logs. We'll start with a little segment from one of my favorite Self Evident episodes with three of my DJ friends called Diaspora DJ Roundtable 2021. And this was a roundtable featuring me and my friends, Les Talusan (aka Les The DJ), Arshia Fatima Haq of Discostan, and Roger Bong of Aloha Got Soul.
Let’s practice ~ shorthand log
So as we're listening to this short clip, start to take log notes. So you won't get the timestamp on this particularly, but you're going to want to take little notes of the topics that our friend Les will be talking about, so that we can put it together into a complete log in a second. So enjoy!
LES TALUSAN: So I moved here in '99 and I guess I started DJing shortly after then here as well, cause I'd been DJing in the Philippines. But I sneak in Filipino music to my gigs before. Just, you know, here in DC, there's not a lot of Filipinos, compared to let's say Hawaii, New York or California, you know. Someone was joking to me recently, like, "Oh, so are there a lot of Filipino DJs there?" I was like, not really. And they were joking how in San Francisco, it's like every sneeze, there's a Filipino DJ. So I think I just, you know, when I used to DJ at a store in the mall and I would hear Filipinos in the crowd, I would start playing some Filipino music. And this is like records. I would bring records and CDs at this thing. And just to, just to connect with them, right.
But since the pandemic started, I've been DJing online, doing all OPM sets. OPM is Original Pilipino Music, but really it's OPM plus. Plus is roots, pop, and covers from the Philippines and the diaspora.
But what does it do to community? It's just Filipinos, we're underdogs. And I hate it. I want people to know that we make good music that we're everywhere, but we're nowhere. I just want to share our music.
Every Sunday, Twitch is a gathering place. That's what it does. It's just, you know, together and hang out.
ROCHELLE: When you snuck in those Filipino songs, when you heard other folks in the crowd, what were those reactions like?
LES TALUSAN: Actually, I was hired by Smithsonian APA Center to DJ an event with Filipino Americans from California. And the only thing that they said was like, "Play whatever you want," but then I was like, oh, my God, I'm going to play all Filipino and Filipino American music. And I started my set with Stockton, California's own The Third Wave. They're a group of Filipinos sisters. And, you know, the reactions I got was someone came up to me and was like, "I didn't know our people made this kind of music." Because they were Filipino Americans and all they've heard are the folky and then the more dramatic, like kundiman, which is a romantic love song, Filipino style.
I was like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm going to keep doing this. I mean, no one could stop me. I'm gonna do it anyways. Even if they didn't like it.
ROCHELLE: Alright how'd you do? Well, if you need a little help, here are the notes that I took, my shorthand log while listening to this segment.
So first in the longer, longer interview, the timestamp for this particular segment for me was 18 minutes and 14 seconds. And so, for the time I want to put down 18:14, and during this time it was Les Talusan talking, and so their initials are LT. So I'll put that right at the top, so I remember exactly who it is is talking.
These are the short notes that I took from listening to this little segment with Les. And so how do we take all of these scattered notes of the topics that our narrator talks about and make them into a complete log?
Write a complete log
Each complete log, from our shorthand notes, should become one to two complete sentences. And it should include who is speaking and the topic they talked about.
So a helpful tip for when you're going through and writing your complete log is to highlight key topics and phrases in each one of your shorthand logs. Then relate them to each other within the log itself. So within that timeframe, how do those topics relate to each other? So it's not like our narrators will often— will typically jump from topic to topic that have no connection to each other. And so we want to put that connection together in each one of our logs at every timestamp. And so once we have highlighted and found and made the connections between topics within each log, we want to use a complete log format. So we want to use our narrator's initials talks about and then whatever topic they talk about.
So a helpful hint, particularly for when we're writing all of our logs is to think about synonyms for the phrase "talks about." So we don't always want to just use the phrase "talks about" all throughout our complete log notes. We want to switch it up. So things like explains or remembers or reflects on. All of these still talk about, well, all of these still mean "talk about," but depending on what they're talking about, they may use— have better words to describe how they're talking about it.
Let’s practice ~ complete log
OK so let's practice again. Let's go back to our friend Les.
From all of the shorthand notes that we took from this clip with Les, we came up with the following complete log: LT talks about getting surprised reactions from Filipino Americans when she DJs Original Pilipino Music (OPM). LT remembers deciding to continue DJing OPM to share Filipino music. And so, if somebody is looking in the archive specifically for Filipino music, OPM, or Filipino Americans, then this is a place in the interview where she talks about all three of those big themes.
KEYWORDS
Then, from our interview log, we're going to also want to pull out keywords. We want to take those shorthand logs and look for the themes that we highlighted, the phrases, the words that really stuck out to us. And then if we see those words or phrases repeatedly being highlighted throughout the interview, then that is a sign of a keyword because those are topics that your narrator felt was important enough to revisit, to keep talking about. And these keywords allow for us to search for particular themes within our larger archive, and also provides descriptions of things that are talked about in each interview. So keywords allow for us to map our natural language that we use in our day-to-day lives and relate them to larger concepts. For example, a narrator could talk for three hours about living under segregation without ever saying the word segregation. And so, it's our job as the interviewer to see those connections between these personal, individual stories that our narrators are sharing and tying them into these larger themes and concepts that people want to learn about and that people typically search for in archives. So when we put together our keywords, we want to keep these researchers and future learners in mind. We are trying to put together an easier way for them to find their way to your interview.
When you are putting together your keywords and picking your keywords, you want to be specific and concise. You want keywords or phrases that are one to two words long. We don't want long, complicated keywords that people may not think about searching. We want these larger themes that we can imagine people searching for in the archive. So for example, DJing Original Pilipino Music in DC is descriptive, but it's so long that it's pretty unlikely that all of these words together will be searched as a phrase. And so, instead we want to break this concept into smaller keywords, like DJ or Original Pilipino Music or Washington, DC. All of these phrases, if searched individually, will still get them to— will still get our future learners and researchers to your interview. And it will be a particular bonus if they happen to be looking for information about DJing Original Pilipino Music in DC, because these keywords, DJ, Original Pilipino Music, and Washington, DC will all pop up for them in this one interview.
You also want to include places, people, time periods, events, and other proper nouns that are mentioned by your narrator. So a proper noun is like a name, anything that is capitalized when we write it out.
And so when you're picking your keywords, you want to imagine yourself as a future researcher, looking for an interview relating to each keyword that you've chosen. So ask yourself, if you listened to your interview, would hearing this interview deepen your understanding of that keyword?
Let’s practice ~ keywords
So thinking back to this clip that we listened to of Les, some example keywords that came to my mind are under general: Filipino American, identity, music, Original Pilipino Music (OPM), DJ, community. And then under places, the Philippines, San Francisco, California, Washington, DC. And then for people, keywords like The Third Wave and Les The DJ.
And so, when you look back at your interview, these keywords should be themes that are expanded on and explained and talked about in your interview.
SUMMARY
Next you want to write your interview summary. So this interview summary is one to two sentences on the important themes discussed in your interview. So basically, what is your interview about? It should give us a quick snapshot of the major themes that your narrator talks about. This should be kind of like a little teaser to get people interested in listening to this interview.
So how do you write your summary? First, you want to start with your log. You'll be highlighting keywords and phrases that stick out to you at each timestamp. And then you want to look back on these themes that you've highlighted, the keywords that you pulled from your interview, and see what themes are repeated. And when you put those themes together, is there even— is there an even bigger overarching theme across all of them? You want to zoom out even more. So how these themes, these repeated themes relate to each other in the interview. You want to make these connections as the interviewer, because remember you are also interpreting your narrator's stories through this interview.
To write your brief summary of your interview, we use the format [Narrator] talks with [Interviewer] about theme one, theme two, and theme three. We have found that picking three major themes from each interview is a great sweet spot to, not only make connections between all of them, but also to really communicate the wide range of topics that your narrator talks about and bringing them all together.
Let’s practice ~ summary
So let's go back to Les again. An example summary that I pulled together from the short clip is the following: Les Talusan talks with Rochelle Kwan about her love for music, DJing Original Pilipino Music (OPM), and the importance of community in her work.
INTERVIEW TITLE
After you've written your interview summary, then we want to also pull an interview title for each interview. This is going to be an even shorter description of your interview to display in our Story Archive, so that when people are browsing the archive, this will be the very first thing that they will see and know about your interview. And then, this will help them decide if it would be— it would be useful for them to listen to this particular interview, depending on what they're looking for in the archive.
This interview title doesn't have to be particularly clever or creative, just straight to the point. So starting with your interview summary, you're going to want to zoom out even more, so that you're able to pick the very main topic of your interview. We recommend a short but descriptive phrase of this main topic for your interview.
Let’s practice ~ interview title
So again, let's go back to Les. Our interview summary was the following: Les Talusan talks with Rochelle Kwan about her love for music, DJing Original Pilipino Music (OPM), and the importance of community in her work. So for an interview title, we could use something like "DJing Original Pilipino Music (OPM) with Filipino Americans." So this very short and concise interview title, if you are looking through the archive and you come across this interview title, and you're interested in DJing, you're interested in Original Pilipino Music, and you're also interested in Filipino Americans, then you'll probably click on this interview.
INTERVIEW CHECKLIST
So this is a lot of information to keep track of for your interview. So to help you out, we put together an Interview Checklist for you to hold onto all of this information and put them all in one place. So imagine that we are gathering a whole packet of information. Your Interview Checklist will be the very top piece that has all of the information in one place for us to access easily.
You can use this Interview Checklist that we've created to help you out. You can make a copy of the Google Doc, so that you can directly add your interview information into the document. Then after you've completed all of the information on the Interview Checklist, you're going to save it as a PDF and then upload it with the rest of your archive entry materials.
YOUR INTERVIEW FILES
OK so you have so many things that you're gathering, from your Interview Checklist to your audio recording to your photo to any additional photos that you all want to share with us, to your release forms. And we want to make sure that all of the files that you submit to us are properly accounted for, to your particular interview. And so, we want to name all our files accordingly, so that we can know immediately, when we see the file name, that this is your interview.
So first to help you gather all of your information and all of your materials, you're going to want to create an interview folder. And you're going to want to use this file name format: your narrator's full name, parentheses interview date and the format should be the year, month, and date, and then close your parentheses.
And then we're going to name all of the files that go into this folder. So we want to start with our Interview Checklist. We'll use our narrator's name, full name, underscore the interview date underscore checklist. And then depending on what file you are naming, you're going to be changing that last word in the file name. So for our audio recordings, we will do narrator name, underscore interview date, underscore audio. For our interview photo we'll use underscore photo01. And then if there are any additional photos that you and your narrator wanted to share with us related to your interview, we are more than happy to add those to the archive with your archive entry. But remember to ask consent from your narrator before submitting these photos. So for these additional photos, we'll want to use underscore photo02. And then if you have more photos, then you'll want to use photo03, photo04, and it goes on.
Finally for the release form, we're going to create one PDF file that includes two copies of the release form. So then it's best to have your narrator complete that release form with you right after the interview. That way, they can ask you any questions that they have about the release form, and then you'll have both of your signatures immediately and your files will be ready to submit altogether.
But it's also important to remember that sometimes our narrators don't want to make that decision of whether they want to share their interview publicly with Self Evident, with the world on our Story Archive, right after the interview. Sometimes narrators want to listen through to the full interview and make sure that everything sounds okay and that they're comfortable sharing that information publicly. So if your narrator asks for more time to listen over to the interview again, before signing the release form, that is totally okay. Just make sure that you follow up with them and get a signed release form before you submit any information to us at Self Evident. But once you get that signed release form, then you're going to also want to submit that with the rest of your materials. And you're going to want to use underscore release.
All of these file name formats will also be included on the Interview Checklist to act as a reminder for you.
Archiving into our Story Archive
Okay so you have processed all of the information for your oral history interview, and now you're going to be ready to upload and archive your interview with our Story Archive Entry Form. So this will be a quick and easy Google form, where you will be asked to submit all of the information that you have put into your Interview Checklist and all of the files that you've compiled for your entry into this Story Archive Entry Form.
And for the time being, it does require that you have a Google account to upload your files directly to this form. But if you don't have a Google account and you still want to be part of our Story Archive, please feel free to reach out to us by sending us an email to oralhistory@selfevidentshow.com and we will be more than happy to help you figure out how to add your interview materials into our Story Archive.
What happens next with your interview
Okay so you now have learned all the skills to conduct, record, and upload your oral history interview to our digital Story Archive. So here's a quick recap of what happens next with your interview.
First, we recommend that you review Lesson 05: Preparing Your Narrator, so that you can get an even better understanding of the release form and where your interview could possibly go.
Then you and your narrator should sign the Story Archive release form, if you choose to submit. And then, you're going to want to process your interview information, using our Interview Checklist, then you'll upload and archive your interview materials with our Story Archive Entry Form. Then our team will process your archive entry submission, and if we have any questions or concerns about your archive entry, we'll reach out to you directly. So make sure that you provide a valid email for us to be in contact with you. Then your oral history interview and materials will be published to our digital Story Archive. Once it is, you and your narrator will hear from us at Self Evident when it is publicly available.
And then finally, we at Self Evident are continuing to explore what our hopes for this digital archive and see even further what we can do with all of these materials that are finding a home in our digital Story Archive. And we would love to see how you all imagine these materials becoming of use to you too.
Next up
We made it! This is our very last lesson of Self Evident's oral history training and archiving program. So after you finish watching this lesson, you're going to dive into processing your interview with our Interview Checklist. So this includes your interview log, your keywords, the summary and interview title, and your interview files.
And then once you've completed your Interview Checklist, you're going to upload and archive your interview materials into our digital Story Archive with our Story Archive Entry Form.
It has been such a journey to walk you all through every step of this oral history interview process. We are so excited to see how this oral history program, this toolkit, this digital Story Archive continue to grow, long into the future. And we are so excited and honored to have you here to build and grow this community oral history program with us.