Abstract
While oral history collections existed long before
digital technology, the use of digital recording devices
and storage systems has revolutionized the way these
archives are created, accessed, managed, and preserved.
Because of the ease of recording oral histories, and the
potential for storage and access through databases, oral
history projects are currently undergoing a renaissance.
This essay will provide a brief introduction into oral
history projects and discuss in detail two oral history
archives: Coney Island Voices, which is attempting to
capture a tableau of the Coney Island beach boardwalk
and neighborhood and preserve them under the threat of
community redevelopment; and StoryCorps, a much larger
project with superior funding, which is more ambitiously
attempting to capture the voice of all of America.
After exploring the purposes and motivations of these
projects, describing the technical details of their
recording and storage systems, and reviewing their
long-term archiving plans and techniques, this essay
will analyze their success in terms of their recording
and storage efforts, as well as their potential for
long-term preservation.
Evolution of Oral Histories
Digital technology and the explosion of digital
recording and rendering formats have altered the way
people view many traditional media. The audio recording
industry has, perhaps, been affected more than any
other. Digital technology has provided opportunities for
digital recording, copying, and storing of all kinds of
audio content. Oral histories are among these audio
media that have been given a new life through digital
recording and preservation technology.
Oral histories are not a new idea. Personal stories and
cultural relevancies were transmitted orally long before
people learned to write on clay tablets or papyrus
scrolls. Recorded audio histories are not new either:
...the modern concept of oral history was
developed in the 1940s by Allan Nevins and his
associates at Columbia University... The discipline came
into its own in the 1960s and early 70s when inexpensive
tape recorders were available to document such rising
social movements as civil rights, feminism, and
anti-Vietnam War protest. ("Oral
History," 2007)
Therefore, digital tools for recording, transmitting,
listening to, and preserving oral histories didn't
create a concept but revolutionize it in terms of
quality and potential. This potential is described by
the Oral History Association, which says, "We have
reached the point where scholars, archivists,
folklorists, and others recording oral history
interviews and other sound documents no longer need to
sacrifice recording quality for convenience and cost" (Oral History Association, 2011).
Digital technology has opened the door for oral history
projects to capture large collections of the cultural
landscape that would otherwise never be heard, and
certainly not preserved.
Value and Variety of Oral History
Archives
The viability of recording and preserving oral
histories has long been possible, but its value has been
debated, and expected benefits vary from project to
project. Graham Smith, writing on behalf of The
Institute of Historical Research based at the University
of London, emphasizes that there are many methodologies
for oral history projects. Smith (2008)
explains:
Within this movement oral historians have
approached the collection, analysis and dissemination of
oral history in different ways. In broad terms while
oral historians in Western Europe and North America have
often focused on issues of identity and cultural
difference, oral historians in Latin America and Eastern
Europe have tended to pursue more overtly political
projects.
For Smith, the specific purpose or method is not as
important as the cumulative result that oral histories
allow everyday people to contribute to the historical
record. He explains, "Oral history continues to be an
important means by which non-academics can actively
participate in 'making history'" (Smith,
2008).
This point could not be made more clearly than through
the lens of another oral history project, also based at
a university in England. The East Midlands Oral History
Archive (EMOHA), part of the University of
Leicester, describes the value of oral history in its
training manual, "What is Oral History":
Oral history can give a voice to individuals
and groups who are sometimes marginalized in
'conventional' histories . . . It can provide new
information, alternative explanations and different
insights which are potentially of enormous value. The
spoken word can convey feelings and emotions with
immediacy and an impact that the written word cannot
match, as well as preserving a record of local dialects
and accents. (East Midlands Oral
History Archive, 2008)
Smith's and EMOHA's views of oral history
projects accomplish similar goals: to record the
everyday voices of everyday people. Most importantly,
both consider these voices valuable to the cultural
record.
Specific Projects: Two Examples
In order to delve into the more technical aspects of
oral collections and archives, two examples, the Oral
History Archive: Voices from Coney Island (abbreviated
to Coney Island Voices) and the StoryCorps project, will
be described in detail. These projects are extremely
different in size, scope, financial assets, management,
and long-term preservation plans, but both are working
toward the same goal: to collect and preserve the oral
histories of a specific culture.
Coney Island Voices:
Purpose and Effort
Like many businesses at Coney Island, the Coney Island
History Project (CIHP) operates out of a boardwalk
booth. The Coney Island Voices staff works in a space
the size of other boardwalk amusements, in the shadow of
Coney Island's famous roller coaster, the Cyclone. The
core employees are extremely dedicated to collecting and
expressing Coney Island's history.
The project's goal, according to the History Project
Website's "About" page (2011a),
is to "increase awareness of Coney Island's legendary
and colorful past and to encourage appreciation of the
Coney Island neighborhood of today." The Voices homepage
(2011b) lists a separate goal,
to "record and preserve memories of Coney Island."
Charles Denson, the Coney Island Voices executive
director and Coney Island native, believes his project
moves beyond these goals. He explains that the History
Project and Voices archive are not just about preserving
memories but recording the potential for socioeconomic
unity. In Eleanor Bader's (2008)
article, "Coney Island History Project Preserves the
Past for Future Generations," Denson says, "This is not
about nostalgia... It's about capturing Coney Island's
essence and heritage. Coney Island is one of the most
diverse places on earth, a place where all socioeconomic
groups have been able to meet, mingle, and have fun".
Interviews for Coney Island Voices are collected in
person or on the phone, by appointment. Tricia Vita,
CIHP's administrative director, says, "several hundred
oral histories have already been collected and are
available to listeners through CIHP's website," (Bader, 2008). According to Seth
Kaufman, CIHP's
oral history database manager and software developer,
Coney Island Voices has captured approximately 350
interviews, ranging in length from only one minute to
over two hours. Kaufman explains that typically the
shortest interviews are from tourists, but that "we
record anyone who has anything to say — anything can be
relevant" (personal communication, November 15, 2011).
Coney Island Voices:
Management, Staff and Resources
The Coney Island History Project was created as a
non-profit organization in 2004. The project is
increasingly important to Coney Island fans, residents,
and historians as an ongoing urban development project
changes the face of the Coney Island community.
Kaufman has worked for Coney Island Voices for six
years. While discussing the resources and staffing for
the project, his explanations paint a picture of a
dedicated group of core employees with many revolving
volunteers. The number of employees varies, but is
usually "about half a dozen, and they tend to be
historians or have archival background, and often a
background in oral history, storytelling, or radio
production" (personal communication, November 15, 2011).
The non-specific number of employees is due to unstable
funding. The project's Membership and Support page (2011c) unapologetically solicits
much-needed donations and asks people to sign up and pay
for membership. The project receives funds from many
sources, but cannot fully rely on them: "There's
donations from local businesses, limited funding from
the city, and less from the state. There is a lot less
than there used to be. Basically everything now goes to
paying people's salaries." He continues, "The good part
is that The History Project doesn't pay rent!" (S.
Kaufman, personal communication, November 15, 2011).
Coney Island Voices:
Management of Technical Assets and Long-Term
Preservation
Coney Island Voices' problem with unreliable resources
is evidenced in their choices of hardware and
preservation equipment, as well as their long-term
preservation strategies. Kaufman explains that their
server uses a Linux machine CIHP paid for with a
grant, but that the technology is now becoming dated.
Money concerns also show Coney Island Voices' choice of
database system: "For the database we use
CollectiveAccess open source — It's free and it's easy
to use" (S. Kaufman, personal communication, November
15, 2011).
The limited resources of the project are spent on
editing and cataloging for the archive:
The cleaning is minimally invasive — they cut
things that have nothing to do with Coney Island, and
noise... Usually the editing process is solely concerned
with pulling out the chunks at the beginning and the end
and dead air. The rest of time is spent on cataloging,
subject headings, and metadata. (S. Kaufman, personal
communication, November 15, 2011)
Due to limited staff time, this process is far from
immediate and a large backlog of interviews exists.
Though the goal is to make these available to the
public, "the editing and cataloging process can take a
long time and the backlog gets long, especially during
the summer season" (S. Kaufman, personal communication,
November 15, 2011).
The recording and preservation format has not changed
from the beginning of the Voices project. All interviews
are captured as WAV files on digital recorders (these
have been purchased and donated) with Flash memory
cards. Coney Island Voices preserves both the unedited
and edited WAVs and archives the Flash cards. Kaufman
says that Coney Island Voices uses LOCKSS, backs up
files onto DVDs, and periodically migrates the database
to offsite machines. When asked about long-term
preservation, Kaufman says, "We're aware of the concern,
but we'll have to deal with it as it comes. The kind of
material we're dealing with gives us the luxury of not
going crazy. Audio and WAVs haven't changed in a while
and they're stable" (personal communication, November
15, 2011). He's proud to point out that Coney Island
Voices has lost only one interview due to equipment
failure, and only three ever. All the losses beyond
that, he explains, were due to human error and were
recovered through one of Coney Island Voices' redundant
storage systems (personal communication, November 15,
2011).
Despite irregular funding and apprehensions about
long-term viability, Coney Island Voices is
accomplishing its goals: "The quality of the interviews
is excellent even when they are phone interviews. There
is no additional software needed to play the interviews
which helps increase wider access to the material" (History in the New Media, 2011).
Coney Island Voices:
Preservation Analysis
The Coney Island Voices project is an excellent example
of a small archive doing its best with limited
resources. The project has received recognition in the
archival community. In 2008, the Archivists Roundtable
of Metropolitan New York (ART)
presented both the Coney Island History Project and
Coney Island Voices with the Award for Innovative Use of
Archives. During the ceremony, "ART
acknowledged the Coney Island History Project for its
remarkable success in documenting and communicating the
history of Coney Island" stating "the Awards Committee
commends Coney Island History Project's novel and
innovative methods in documenting a beloved landmark and
cultural institution. Through the Project's efforts, the
Coney Island community has been enriched and empowered"
(ART,
2009). Coney Island Voices is recording
interviews, making them available, and preserving them
in terms of format and the LOCKSS system. Though they
have not made concrete plans for file migration or
prepared for another institution to ingest their files
if they have to close, at least the files themselves,
for now, are safe.
StoryCorps: Purpose and
Effort
The StoryCorps plan, like Coney Island Voices, is to
collect audio interviews and to build a comprehensive
snapshot of cultural life. The scope, however, is much
greater. StoryCorps' mission "is to provide Americans of
all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to
record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives" (StoryCorps, 2011a). Their
plan is to build themselves "into an enduring
institution that will touch the lives of every American
family" (StoryCorps, 2011a).
David Isay, the founder of StoryCorps, was a radio
interviewer and documentary maker prior to starting this
project. He was inspired not only by what he had learned
in his own work, but also by a previous "every man"
history project. According to the journalist Jessica
Dye's (2006) EContent article
"Making History: StoryCorps Puts Digital Recording in
the People's Hands":
StoryCorps was inspired by an early
twentieth-century program, the Work Progress
Association's Federal Writers' Project, which was
introduced during the Great Depression to keep
invaluable personal records from those who had lived
through momentous nineteenth century events from
slipping into oblivion.
The process for recording an oral history with
StoryCorps is far more formal than the Coney Island
Voices process. StoryCorps interviews take place in
StoryBooths, which are soundproof interview rooms. Each
contains digital recording equipment, a microphone, two
chairs, and a desk. Interviews are by appointment,
typically last forty minutes, and involve the principal
interviewee and a family member, friend, or StoryCorps
facilitator. Before the interviews, photographs are
taken and waivers are signed allowing StoryCorps to keep
and reproduce copies of the interview. After the
interview, documents are scanned into PDFs, images are
stored as JPEGS, the interview is uploaded into the
StoryCorps database, and the subject receives a copy of
the interview on audio CD (T. Cooper, personal
communication, November 11, 2011). Later, the interview
is sent to offsite storage and to the American Folklife
Center at Library of Congress (StoryCorps,
2010).
Since the initial StoryBooth opened in New York City's
Grand Central Terminal on October 23, 2003 (Isay, 2010), the StoryCorps
project has created permanent StoryBooths in San
Francisco, California at the Contemporary Jewish Museum,
and in Atlanta, Georgia at the WABE studio. There is
also a MobileBooth in a modified Airstream trailer that
travels the country; door-to-door teams that record at
specific locations; and StoryKits, packages that contain
an audio recorder, microphone, and camera, as well as
waivers and directions, which can be used at home before
being shipped back to StoryCorps (T. Cooper, personal
communication November 11, 2011).
For an archive so well managed in terms of ingesting
content, the number of recorded interviews is unclear:
the StoryCorps Web pages list variously 30,000 and
35,000. According to Tayla Cooper, Senior Archive
Coordinator for StoryCorps, the number of interviews (as
of November 11, 2011) was approximately 40,000. In fact,
ten interviews had been recorded on that day by 4:15 PM
EST (personal communication, November 11, 2011). Public
Broadcasting Online, the webpage of WABE in Atlanta,
Georgia, claims 50,000 interviews have been conducted (PBAonline, 2011).
Though there is no consensus on the number of
interviews, it is at minimum over 30,000 and growing.
Isay explains why it is important for the project to
collect as many interviews as possible. In the article American Muslims to
Record, Preserve Oral Histories with StoryCorps July
4th, Isay explains, "StoryCorps tells the true
American story — that we are a people defined by small
acts of courage, kindness and heroism. Each interview
reminds people that their lives matter and will not be
forgotten" ("American Muslims,"
2011).
StoryCorps: Management,
Staff and Resources
StoryCorps, like Coney Island Voices, is an independent
non-profit corporation based in Brooklyn, NY. Both
record born digital audio files and use the WAV file
format, but the similarities stop there. The StoryCorps
staff numbers over 100 people. David Isay presides over
a five person executive team, and the board of directors
boasts the former president of The New York Times
Company Foundation and former senator Bill Bradley (StoryCorps, 2010).
The operating budget for StoryCorps is also far greater
than that of Coney Island Voices. StoryCorps' revenue
for the 2010 fiscal year was $6,326,314; expenditures
equaled slightly less at $6,213,713 (StoryCorps, 2010). Deborah
Levheim (n.d.) discusses funding
for StoryCorps: interviewees are often expected to pay a
$10 donation, but the majority of funds come from
government institutions, foundations, and private
donations. These income sources include "the MacArthur
foundation, NPR, Delta Airlines, and the National
Endowment for the Arts," (Levheim,
n.d.) among dozens of others. The differentiated
income streams provide StoryCorps with financial
security that Coney Island Voices and many other digital
archives don't have. In terms of size, finances, and
connections, StoryCorps is by far the largest and most
able oral history collection and archive in the world
today.
StoryCorps: Management of
Technical Assets and Long-Term Preservation
StoryCorps has its technical work cut out for it. The
project captures interviews, takes photos of
interviewees, creates digital copies of release forms
and paperwork, and stores it all with the goal of
permanence. In keeping with their mission, the staff at
StoryCorps has to make this information safe from damage
and degradation, not just now but in the long term.
StoryCorps must assure the quality of their digital
objects, standardization of their structure, and safe
uploading to their server.
Unlike Coney Island Voices, StoryCorps has the
financial potential to do this by the book. StoryCorps
uses the proprietary Drobo Pro database system to
archive their WAV files (called "assets") in digital
packages with associated JPEGs and PDFs ("units"), in
their server in Brooklyn, New York, according to Cooper
(2011). She explained that some of the technical aspects
are not released, but provided this information:
I can tell you, they've just migrated out of
using disparate FileMaker databases, they've custom
built a new database management system on Drobo
software, which they're very excited about... Besides
being more up to date and simple to handle, this allows
for an easy spread of file units and assets throughout
the Drobo Pro system for redundancy. (personal
communication, November 11, 2011)
When asked about file redundancy, Cooper explained,
"StoryCorps keeps a copy, the interviewee gets a copy,
and a copy is sent to the Library of Congress. Also, we
have offsite back-up on an MS server" (personal
communication November 11, 2011).
In addition to this, many institutions hold small
sections of the collection. StoryCorps boasts that there
are "100 local StoryCorps archives in America" (StoryCorps, 2008). For
example, the La Crosse Public Library in La Crosse,
Wisconsin has 116 StoryCorps interviews in their
circulating collection. The librarians at La Crosse were
the first to create item-level records for StoryCorps
interviews, and were instrumental in developing the
cataloging structure. They created a new template for
StoryCorps bibliographic records and helped format them
for uploading to OCLC WorldCat (Doering
& Klug-Hefte, 2011).
Most of the true long-term preservation is handled by
the Library of Congress. In Cooper's words, "They're the
Long Term Preservation partners, and they make sure the
data and assets are safe... That's the nature of our
relationship with them" (personal communication November
11, 2011). Isay (2010) enlisted
the help of the Library of Congress before recording the
first StoryCorps interview:
I made a cold call to the center's director,
Peggy Bulger. I told Peggy about this crazy idea I had
called 'StoryCorps' and asked if the Folklife Center
might consider housing the collection. Miraculously, she
had the vision and foresight to say 'yes' on the spot.
The Library of Congress publicized the relationship in
their press release, "American Folklife Center at the
Library of Congress to House the Storycorps Archive."
Their commitment to preservation is made clear:
The Archive of Folk Culture will be the
repository for the StoryCorps collection. The Library's
folklife specialists will be responsible for ensuring
that the collection is preserved in digital form,
appropriately indexed and cataloged . . . In this way,
the StoryCorps collection will be available to future
generations of researchers and family descendants. (Dalrymple, 2003)
Still, the Folklife Center doesn't hold all of the
StoryCorps interviews. The copying process for
interviews is not automatic: only "with the permission
of the participants, a copy of the interview on CD-ROM
will also go to the American Folklife Center at the
Library of Congress" (Levheim, n.d.).
According to the StoryCorps FAQ page at the Library of
Congress American Folklife Center, just over 16,000
interviews and 28,000 photos have been received (StoryCorps, 2011b). 16,000
is less than half, perhaps as little as one third of
StoryCorps' total collection. With their financing and
management, as well as the backing of the Library of
Congress, this low number is a concern. However,
StoryCorps is confident that at least these 16,000 units
are being properly preserved in the long-term.
StoryCorps:
Preservation Analysis
The scope of the StoryCorps project is large, and it is
ostensibly performing at a highly professional level.
According to Cooper, at least, StoryCorps has never lost
an asset. She credits this to their offsite storage, the
trustworthiness of the Library of Congress, and
finality, to the fact that, "We use the LOCKSS
principle. There are tons of copies. The staff is just
too committed to lose an asset" (personal communication,
November 11, 2011).
Still, there are concerns. It is unclear why the
estimated range of StoryCorps interviews varies by as
much as 20,000, or why StoryCorps' website offers both
30,000 and 35,000 as the total number of interviews.
StoryCorps is performing its due diligence by employing
LOCKSS, which is the safest way to maintain record
integrity, ensure zero loss, and check for bit loss.
However, their arranged longterm preservation partner
has in its possession, by its own count, less than half
of the interviews collected by StoryCorps. This
information is vexing, to say the least.
Despite these problems, StoryCorps has received a great
deal of well-deserved recognition from participants,
archivists, and media organizations. In fact, StoryCorps
was awarded the rare Institutional Award during the 66th
annual Peabody Awards in 2007 (Library
of Congress, 2007). In any event, StoryCorps has
set a new bar for large-scale oral history archiving. As
long as WAV files are usable, the stories they have
collected will be preserved and available for listening.
Two Projects: A Brief
Comparison
Coney Island Voices and StoryCorps have the same
purpose: to record and convey a group of people and the
spirit of an area in its voice. However, they have very
different scopes. Coney Island Voices is interested in a
single community and beach boardwalk. StoryCorps, on the
other hand, is interested in recording the totality of
American stories.
Accordingly, the funding of these two organizations
differs tremendously. StoryCorps, with its budget in the
millions and the backing of national organizations, has
resources and potential that Coney Island Voices will
never have, and the Library of Congress provides for
StoryCorps' long-term needs better than Coney Island
Voices can provide for its own.
Coney Island Voices does not aspire to this level of
preservation, wanting instead to record as many
interviews as possible, as quickly as they can. Coney
Island Voices is "not an intellectually ambitious
project. It's interesting, but not ambitious. It's a
small slice of American History being done with a very
broad brush" (S. Kaufman, personal communication,
November 15, 2011). When comparing Coney Island Voices
to other oral history archives, Kaufman (2011) — with no
prompting from the interviewer — discussed StoryCorps:
At a very low level you have extremely
specific oral history projects, and a high level you
have StoryCorps that just talks to people and there's no
thematic unity — it's pure story telling. There only
needs to be one StoryCorps. We're in the middle.
(personal communication, November 15, 2011)
He concludes by stating, "In the middle is a very
interesting place to be because documenting a thing
broadly makes it hard to set the boundaries and it just
goes on forever. We want to go on as long as there's
Coney Island history to record," (personal
communication, November 15, 2011).
StoryCorps is more efficient, more managed, more secure
in its resources, and has a stronger long-term
preservation system. Coney Island Voices, on the other
hand, has never had the database or migration
difficulties of StoryCorps, and answers only to its own
mission and purpose, rather than to its funding sources.
Somehow, despite these differences, the two share basic
similarities. Both record interviews in the WAV format.
Both store them using LOCKSS. Neither has taken
precautions for a move away from WAV files or is
prepared for a "hand off" if their organization fails.
Most importantly, both, in their own way, are preserving
history and making sure that it exists for the future.
References
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Author's Bio
Chris Burns is in his final semester at San Jose
State’s School of Library and Information Science. His
main areas of professional interests are art
digitization, image preservation, research, and
rearranging stacks. Chris has interned for the ongoing
digitization project for the San Jose Museum of Art and
volunteers at the Airport Library and Museum in SFO. He
loves going to concerts, events at museums and art
galleries, the circus, and fairs. Chris lives with his
fiance in San Francisco.
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