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F  A myriad of projects capture the interest and energies of individuals and organizations conducting oral history projects nationwide. Last week, the Women’s Circle of Shiloh Baptist voted to document this inner city church’s hundred-year history . Ed Panello’s veterans group has expressed interest in preserving the experiences of soldiers who fought in World War II.The Springfield Historical Society’s recent recruits have proposed collecting materials on the railroad industry that once shaped community life. And Zevan Corporation’s business manager believes it’s a great idea to document the trade skills of the company’s machinists. But why bother?To those devoted to doing oral history, the answer may seem self-evident; indeed, just posing the question may border on blasphemy. But the answers to this question are, in fact, many and complex; those contemplating an oral history project often jump into research without carefully considering their motivations and goals.Why do you want to do this work? What do you hope to accomplish? Taking time to understand why you’re doing oral history is essential to the success of your project. Be sure to bring other interested parties into the Chapter One Why Do Oral History? By Howard L. Sacks conversation, no matter how confident you are of the rightness of your motivations. It’s all too easy to jump ahead to what is undoubtedly the most exciting part of any oral history project—sitting down with people to conduct interviews. But failing to first ask why inevitably results in one of two all-too-common outcomes.You end up with a box of worthless materials that eventually gather dust on some shelf because nobody really ever knew what to do with the stuff once it was collected. Alternatively, you debut your project only to find that the public isn’t interested because you assumed, in error, that everyone would share your sense that the subject is inherently worthwhile. ’  Any oral history project involves a variety of participants, each with his or her own needs and interests.Why do you as an individual want to do oral history? Perhaps you’re an archivist or librarian, in which case this work may constitute part of your occupation. If you’re a student, oral history research might well contribute to a paper or thesis leading to an academic degree . Volunteers, who conduct many oral history projects, participate because they’re interested in the subject, want to develop new skills, or relish a personal challenge. I teach a seminar on fieldwork at Kenyon College, a small undergraduate institution in rural Ohio. Most of our students come from metropolitan areas; to them, the midwestern rural landscape seems a world apart from the skyscrapers and manicured suburbs of New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. The students who find their way to my seminar are typically motivated by a desire to engage the surrounding community, to learn something about a rural world that they are unlikely to encounter at any other point in their lives. As I fashion each project that becomes the focus of my students’ fieldwork, I’m careful to keep their personal motiva-  F  .  Failing to first ask why inevitably results in one of two all-toocommon outcomes. You end up with a box of worthless materials that gather dust on a shelf because nobody knew what to do with the stuff. Or you find that the public isn’t interested because you assumed that everyone would share your sense that the subject is worthwhile. tions in mind. Experience tells me that their enthusiasm for and commitment to the research will be greatest if the work addresses the interests that brought them to the course in the first place. Ignoring individual interests—and agendas—can contribute to several difficulties in the research process. One crucial decision in any project is determining who will conduct the interviews that lie at the core of any oral history effort. Let’s say that a town bicentennial committee plans to produce a film documenting local history. A person joins the project mainly to impress others with her great personal knowledge of the community or to shape the town’s image as portrayed in the film. Recognizing that this person is likely to impose her views on others, the good project planner does not assign her to the role of interviewer;instead,that person is asked to help in other areas where she can be productive but not quite so directive. Individuals...

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