III. Managing Paperwork

III. Paperwork
Interviewer's Field Notes
Life History Forms
Release Forms
Tracking Your Progress

Interviewer’s Field Notes

Very soon after the interview, the interviewer should sit down and make notes in an organized fashion, before time dulls the details. The interviewer's notes tell who, what, when, and where. They add anything that will help to understand the interview. Since this project is in a school setting, we will need to create a form to fit our particular projects' needs and goals.

Life History Forms

The life history form can contain very little or a great deal of information depending on each subject. Personal data is very useful and particularly recommended since the interview is of historical importance and will be archived for future use. The form needs to contain information that helps future viewers to understand, use, and interpret the interview. Aside from interviewee's name, address, telephone number, birthdate, and birthplace, the form might ask for the names, birth dates, and dates of death for parents, siblings, spouses, and children. It could ask for places lived in as well as for education and work histories. It could ask for listings of special skills and for memberships in organizations.

Release Forms

Release forms can become rather full of legal-sounding language, but that is something we will not be creating on our own. Release forms make it clear to the interviewee, without question, how the interviews will be used, minimizing the chances for misunderstanding. While we will not have to consider how the form looks, we will certainly need to be sure we have obtained one for each subject. In addition to offering some protection, release forms are also reminders that we have been granted the privilege of using something that does not belong to us. A release usually includes the interviewee's name and signature, the interviewer's name, the date, a statement of permission to use the interview, the name of the person or institution receiving the permission, and the purposes to which the interview will be put. Especially if the interviews are to be archived for future use, the interviewers also need to sign releases. For us, this means your parents or guardians will sign.

Tracking Your Progress

Depending on the project goals and archival plans, the paperwork can get quite involved or it can stay simple. A simple system to keep track of the stage of each interview is to keep a file for each interviewee. All paperwork and copies of the recordings are kept there. A sequence of steps to track progress is listed on the front of the file and checked off as steps are completed.