Phone: (575) 233-4071
54 Santana Rd. • Vado, NM 88072

The Importance of Transcription in Oral and Personal History

Transcription is the process of turning the spoken word into the printed word. Once you have recorded an interview, you can greatly enhance its accessibility by having it transcribed. This is especially important in the case of oral history projects commissioned by government agencies and public institutions, for without transcription, the interviews are far more cumbersome to use. Rarely will researchers actually listen to tapes to garner the information they are looking for in an oral history interview.

"My recommendation is that a project [sic] plan to transcribe and process as many interviews as possible. Despite all the costs and effort involved, if the oral history project is going to fulfill its aims of providing fresh, detailed, reasonably authentic historical data which will be used by researchers, writers, teachers, and the public, then the interviews almost have to be transcribed," writes Willa K. Baum, an authority in the field of oral history.

Oral histories often cover a specific topic and having hard copies to work with aids researchers in pinpointing the information they seek. Additionally, when interviews are conducted for personal histories, transcription is the next step toward these interviews becoming books, if that is the product selected by the client. In fact, the transcript is the raw material that will be molded into a narrative that will tell your story with elegance.

Full Circle Heritage Services contracts with high-quality transcription services with expertise in Spanish, which often is important in the Southwest and other portions of the U.S. We've done transcription, so we know how it should be done. We choose to use subcontractors in this portion of our business, as our small staff's efforts are best put to use in other areas of our work.

When transcriptionists are working from 60-minute tapes, each hour generates approximately 32 pages of dialog; digital files of 60 minutes are expected to produce similar results. Transcriptionists type up interviews while listening to them on headsets. Typically, a log is made of each tape, indicating where subjects change. Transcripts are proofread and corrected, as well, and information about who is speaking on the tape, when, where, and what the purpose of the interview was also generally are included. When Full Circle receives a transcript, it is checked against the original recording to ensure the fidelity of the transcript with the spoken interview.

We gladly arrange for the processing of our clients' recordings; this is part of our service. If, however, you have recordings in your possession for which you are seeking a transcriptionist, we suggest you peruse the Association of Personal Historians web site at www.personalhistorians.org.

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