This guide is intended for students and researchers at the University of Oxford who are interested in Oral History. Students and researchers from related fields may find it useful.
Use this guide to find out about the different resources, print and online, for oral history.
This LibGuide has two principle aims. Firstly, to provide an introduction to the use and conduct of oral history for the purposes of historical research. Secondly, to provide a set of links to British and Irish, English-language oral history projects and resources available online.
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Warning: We aim to keep this LibGuide as up-to-date as possible. The nature of the funding for some of these projects, however, means that websites may be taken down without notice resulting in broken links.
New oral history projects are beginning all the time. These are just a selection of projects currently in progress. Some of the content collected in the course of the projects is due to be made accessible online. There may even still be an opportunity to get involved.
This LibGuide was originally created by Laura Johnson, the History Faculty Library Graduate Trainee from 2012-13. Many thanks go to her hard work.
If you are thinking of conducting oral history interviews or including oral history resources in your work, the University of Oxford History Faculty is currently preparing guidelines for carrying out and using oral history interviews.
For more guidance see the Key Resources tab.
Looking for books, journals, databases and more, held in Oxford libraries?
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Looking for early modern and modern archives held in the Bodleian Libraries?
Using Narrative in Social Research
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"An elegantly written, scholarly and accessible text. Jane Elliott shows a sophisticated appreciation of contemporary methodological developments, and makes a persuasive case for the use of narrative approaches in both qualitative and quantitative research. The book challenges and advances debates about combining methods, and shows how stories can work within and across conventional research boundaries. It is a truly original contribution to the literature."-- Amanda Coffey Cardiff School of Social Sciences This is a lucid and accessible introduction to narrative methods in social research. It is also an important book about the nature, role and theoretical basis of research methodology in general. Jane Elliott instructs the reader on the basic methods and methodological assumptions that form the basis of narrative methods. She does so in a way that is practical and accessible and in a way that will make the book a favourite with students and experienced researchers alike. Elliott argues that both qualitative and quantitative methods are characterized by a concern with narrative, and that our research data can best be analyzed if it is seen in narrative terms. In concrete, step-by-step terms she details for the reader how to go about collecting data and how to subject that data to narrative analysis, while at the same time placing this process in its wider theoretical context. She works across the traditional quantitative/qualitative divide to set out the ways in which narrative researchers can uncover such issues as social change, causality and social identity. She also shows how the techniques and skills used by qualitative researchers can be deployed when doing quantitative research and, similarly, how qualitative researchers can sometimes profit from using quantitative skills and techniques.
Doing Oral History
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This basic manual offers detailed advice on setting up an oral history project, conducting interviews, making video recordings, preserving oral history collections in archives and libraries, and teaching and presenting oral history.
Oral History
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A Guide to Oral History and the Law
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