August 25, 2008
Committee Considers Revisions to Oral History Guidelines
By Robert B. Townsend
A committee of the Oral History Association was recently tasked with revising their oral history Evaluation Guidelines. These guidelines are invaluable to the discipline, offering the best statement of principles of good practice in oral history research, and the AHA has consistently endorsed them over the past decade. They have also been invaluable in our discussions with and about institutional review boards.
Committee chair Tracy K’Meyer invites “suggestions for material to add or subtract, issues to address, ways to reorganize” the document, so we strongly encourage historians who use oral history methods to re-read the guidelines and offer their suggestions to the committee. According to Dr. K’Meyer, the committee will begin discussing the revisions in early October, so be sure to send them your comments soon.
