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Oral History Handbook

MSU's guide on oral history best practices

Oral Histories at MSU

MSU Archives and Special Collections (ASC)  engages in oral history creation and also accepts oral histories created by donors outside the library. Whether an oral history is created by MSU or an outside researcher, all oral histories preserved in ASC must meet the archive's standards.

MSU ASC Oral History Requirements

The following checklists indicate all the pieces of information MSU ASC must receive to archive an oral history. Oral histories missing one or more elements cannot be accepted.

Audio

Check 

Oral History Element 

Acceptable Format(s) 

 

Release form – must be the original 

Paper, PDF (if using DocuSign) 

 

Edited audio recording 

MP4, WAV 

 

Caption file 

VTT 

 

Transcript 

DOCX, TXT 

 

Metadata and 100-300-word abstract 

PDF, DOCX, TXT 

Field Notes (optional – if you have them) 

Paper, PDF 

 

Photo of Narrator (optional)

TIFF, JPG, PNG 

Video

Check 

Oral History Element 

Acceptable Format(s) 

 

Release form – must be the original 

Paper, PDF (if using DocuSign) 

 

Edited video recording 

MP4 

 

Caption file 

VTT 

 

Transcript 

DOCX, TXT 

 

Metadata and 100-300-word abstract 

PDF, DOCX, TXT 

 

Field Notes (optional – if you have them) 

Paper, PDF