Conduct an Oral History Interview

Special Collections partners with researchers on campus and in the community to conduct oral history interviews on a variety of topics that document Chattanooga, the state of Tennessee, and the South including the history of the University. If you are interested in collaborating with Special Collections to help preserve local and regional voices with a focused oral history project that connects individual experiences to historical narratives, please contact us as part of your initial planning. We can offer audio recording equipment and organizational support for your project!

View the resources below to help organize your oral history project.

• Handheld Recorder Capture Instructions
• Web Meeting Capture Instructions
• Oral History Interview Release

Partner with Us

We love working with collaborators to document the incredible stories and experiences of people living in the Chattanooga and Tennessee Valley. View examples of our past and ongoing partnerships below:

• Chattanooga Foodways Oral Histories
• Chattanooga Gun Violence Activism Oral Histories
• Chattanooga Latinx Oral Histories
• Chattanooga LGBTQ+ Oral Histories
• Chattanooga Oral Histories
• Chattanooga Women's Oral Histories
• Great Smoky Mountains Wildfires Oral Histories
• McCoy Farm and Gardens Oral Histories
• Moser, Barry Oral Histories
• Ralph W. Hood and W. Paul Williamson Holiness Churches of Appalachia Recordings and Interviews
• Rise of Gig City Oral Histories
• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga COVID-19 oral histories and photographs
• University of Tennessee at Chattanooga oral histories

Capture Specifications

Special Collections collaborates with partners to produce high quality audio recordings that can be maintained in perpetuity. We prefer to work with unedited recordings and footage. Post-processing edits are managed in the Special Collections digitization lab. Recordings must adhere to the minimum technical requirements listed below to be considered for inclusion in the repository. Recordings must also meet the criteria outlined in our Collection Development policy.

• Format: Broadcast WAV
• File extension: .wav
• Bit depth: 24-bit
• Sampling rate: 96 kHz

Special Collections works with partners on a case-by-case basis to consider video recordings. Typically, we prefer audio recordings submitted with a digital image of the interviewee. Preservation standards for audio recordings are well-established in the archival community, whereas standards for video are not as established or predictable.

Learn More

Boyd, Doug. n.d. "Designing an Oral History Project: Initial Questions to Ask Yourself." Oral History in the Digital Age (blog). http://ohda.matrix.msu.edu/2012/06/designing-an-oral-history-project/.

Oral History Association. 2009. "Principles for Oral History and Best Practices for Oral History." oralhistory.org. https://www.oralhistory.org/about/principles-and-practices/.

Samuel Proctor Oral History Program. n.d. "Tutorials: Beginning an Oral History Project." University of Florida. https://oral.history.ufl.edu/research/tutorials.

Smithsonian Institution Archives. n.d. "How to Do Oral History." siarchives.si.edu. https://siarchives.si.edu/history/how-do-oral-history.