Oral History
The OHAC collecting policy outlines the past, present, and future priorities of both “oral history as format” and “oral history as primary source” creation.
Undergraduate
OHAC’s collections have inter- and cross-disciplinary applications as a methodology and as primary source material informing research and analysis.Graduate and Professional Schools
OHAC’s collections inform the work of several programs, including the Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA), law, medicine, social work, history, and ethnic and diaspora studies.Institutes, Interdisciplinary Programs, etc.
OHAC selectively archives large-scale projects led by the Columbia Center for Oral History Research, housed with Incite in the Arts & Sciences division. Projects are typically available to researchers in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library Reading Room and the Digital Library Collections.Course Reserves
OHAC’s collections are not available for course reserves. However, materials can be accessed in the Digital Library Collections and by appointment in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library reading room.
Current collecting is limited, requiring audio files, copy‑edited transcripts, and signed narrator agreements that meet specific criteria. Unsolicited materials will be returned to the sender.
Methodological Focus
OHAC prioritizes collecting materials that adhere to oral history principles, ethics, and best practices. These practices include active and ongoing consent, transcription, narrator review of transcription, etc. Interviews for films, journalistic reporting, etc. tend to fall outside oral history methodological considerations.Print
OHAC collects copyedited interview transcripts according to specified requirements.Digital Collections
OHAC considers born-digital audio collections in non-proprietary formats.Media
OHAC does not collect video file formats. Analog materials (e.g. cassette tapes, CDs, miniDiscs) are considered for inspection.Languages Collected
English is the primary language of most OHAC collections. In the past, the Oral History Research Office accepted collections donated in other languages, including Chinese, Russian, and Armenian. OHAC considers collections with bilingual transcripts.Chronological Focus
The collecting focus is on oral history interviews conducted in the present-day. Older collections pose insurmountable archival, ethical, and research problems, such as inadequate releases, poor interviewer skills, poor sound recording, and missing documentation issues.Geographical Focus
OHAC considers collections across geographic locations. However, priority is placed on advising donors to archive, preserve, and make accessible their collections proximate to narrators, creators, and communities that would benefit from easy local access. Internet access is not a reliable solution for global access.
All oral history collections are accessible in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library’s reading rooms.
Consortia and Collaborative Collecting with Other Institutions
In response to the elitism of the argument for “uniqueness” of collections, OHAC collaborates with institutional archives to co-collection specific materials. For example, OHAC contributed to the Bronx County Historical Society’s Aerosol Arts Documentary Project to partially fund the completion of five oral history interviews and to then jointly provide access to the materials.Location Decisions and Selection for ReCAP
Oral history materials on-site include administrative files, which are occasionally accessed for instruction and project background information, as well as paper copies of transcripts for reading room and scanning use.Oral history materials located off-site include transcript duplicates, all accessioned analog materials (e.g. reels, cassettes, etc.), biographical interviews, and unprocessed collections.
Deaccessioning
OHAC’s deaccessioning policy prioritizes materials collected in the past with troubled historical, contractual, and ethical rights issues (e.g. lack of releases, interviews closed in perpetuity, etc.).Digitization and Preservation
OHAC collections and materials benefitted from two large-scale digitization and technology grants, such as The Carnegie Corporation of New York Digital Archive and a Mellon Foundation award. The majority of OHAC’s analog holdings were reformatted to digital and can be viewed in the Digital Library Collection or reviewed by appointment in the Rare Book & Manuscript reading room. Remaining analog materials are assessed and periodically submitted for reformatting as library-wide resources permit.
Kimberly Springer
Curator of Oral History
- Columbia Center for Oral History Archives