Ensure other members of your group know where you are and have your contact details so that they can contact you if necessary. Also make sure the interviewee has someone who knows who you are, why you are meeting them, and where and when you are conducting the interview. Keep an audit trail of correspondence between you and the interviewee. If you have not met the interviewee in person before, take some form of identification with you.
The selected room should be quiet and not facing a busy road. Ensure all TVs, radios and mobile phones are switched off or on silent. Make sure that you are not likely to be disturbed by other occupants of the house, visitors or pets.
Remember, interviewees may be nervous or apprehensive about being interviewed by a stranger, even if it takes place within their own home. Being calm, patient, relaxed and polite will help put them at ease and is likely to result in a better interview.
Before you start, agree to build a couple of breaks into the interview for rest and refreshment – talking for an extensive period of time will get tiring for the participant. You may also need to consider impromptu breaks if the interviewee becomes upset by some of the things they are talking about. For all breaks, press pause rather than stop on the recorder, to avoid finishing the recording and having to start a new one.
As well as going through the participation agreement before the interview, go through the recording agreement form thoroughly – download a sample recording agreement form. Make sure the interviewee knows their rights regarding the copyright of the recording, and again ensure they know how you are planning to store and use it. Ask them if they are happy with the wording of the form before they sign it.
Thank the interviewee for their time and ask them how they found the interview – bringing up memories is sometimes traumatic for participants.
Ensure they have understood, agreed to and signed the participation agreement and the recording agreement and that they are still happy for the interview to be made public. Re-establish which sections, if any, they would prefer to be closed.
Before you leave, make sure they have your contact details and that you have agreed a date, time and location for any follow-up interviews.
It’s a good idea to send the interviewee a copy of the audio recording in their preferred format, so that they have a record of what they have said.
There are some key points that you will need to cover in each interview. This will be useful for people who later catalogue and listen to the oral history recordings.
At the beginning of the recording, state:
The first points that need to be covered in the interview are:
It’s generally a good idea to not ‘over-plan’ your interview questions, as too much preparation and rehearsal can make the conversation stilted. Here are some tips for keeping interviews flowing: