ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The Governing Texas Oral History Program adheres strictly to the canons of professional inquiry and impartial scholarly analysis in all interview projects.  To ensure the quality and objectivity of our oral history interviews, the project will follow the following principles, policies, and procedures.

NON-PARTISAN

The Governing Texas Oral History Program is a non-partisan research effort which has no affiliation with a particular political party or perspective.  

PREPARATION

The program's researchers aid in preparing for an interview by gathering, digesting, and analyzing available information pertinent to the interview. Interviewees as well as interviewers are encouraged to suggest or contribute useful background material for the interview.         

SUBJECT MATTER

The subject matter of an interview ideally reflects the interviewee's judgment as well as the interviewing scholar's intuition about what is important for future generations to learn that they might not be able to learn from contemporary documents, records, news accounts, and other sources. Input from interviewees in developing a topical outline to guide the interview session is encouraged.

INTERVIEW SESSIONS

Interviews are conducted by individuals knowledgeable about the subject matter and selected by the project director. Interviews are conducted as conversations rather than interrogations, in settings conducive to thoughtful and candid interchange free from interruptions. 

Interview sessions are conducted in closed sessions. Personal associates or staff may join the interview if the person being interviewed believes their assistance would add value to the interview record. Most interviews are conducted one on one. Some interviews may conducted by panels of several interviewers acting as a team. All interviews are audio-recorded. Some may be video-recorded. 

CONFIDENTIALITY

Interview results are held in confidence until the final transcripts are released. Once the final transcript has been approved for release by the interviewee, the transcript becomes a property of the Governing Texas History Project and may be shared and distributed for public review and use, including being posted on the project’s website. 

REVIEW AND EDITING PROCESS

Interviewees may have the opportunity to edit, correct, or augment their interview remarks prior to release. For this purpose, the project manager will send the interviewee a copy-edited raw transcript which the recipient is asked to return, indicating any changes to the transcript on the returned copy. The project editor will then then prepare a clean final transcript, incorporating changes made by the interviewee.

FINAL TRANSCRIPTS

Final Transcripts will be released when the interview or project is completed, except in cases where the interviewee has stipulated otherwise. Final Transcripts are closed until the release date.

PRESERVATION

Transcripts and unedited audio records may be sealed for a period following the date of the interview unless the interviewee has agreed in writing to unseal his/her unedited interview at an earlier date.

ARCHIVES

All interview records will be permanently archived for reseasrach purposes.

A copy of the archived transcript will be furnished to the interviewee for his/her personal file