How to Cite an Oral Interview

 

This is another area where you have to exercise good judgment in the form of citation, but take care to include the following elements:

 

         Interviewee (and, if it seems called for, some identification of the interviewee)

         Interviewer

         Place and date of interview

         Location of recording or transcript

 

There are two types of interviews you are likely to need to cite.

 

1.      An interview that someone else recorded with an informant, and that you have used (listening to the tape or reading the transcript) in a repository.

2.      An interview that you yourself conducted with an informant.

 

Interviews Used in Repositories

 

These are, in effect, manuscript sources—documents existing in a particular place, the only difference being that these are non-print documents. We need to cover the essential elements for citing an interview and also take care to show where to find it. Here are some examples.

 

 

4. [cite an interview from the institute]

7. [cite an interview from the GRHC]

 

Subsequent citations can take a short form.

 

 

14. [examples]

 

Interviews You Conduct Yourself

 

Like a journalist, you need to retain research notes or tapes from your interviews. The format of the note, however, is based on the idea that the person interviewed is the source, and so your note refers to that person, not to the physical item of notes or tapes. Here are some examples.

 

 

5. Mervin and Ione Bakken (custom harvesters), interview by the author, Taloga, Oklahoma, June 13, 1977.

11. Joe Habiger (farm implement dealer), interview by the author, Bushton, Kansas, March 15, 1977.

20.  James Jay (former director, Kansas Harvest Control Office), interview by the author, Great Bend, Kansas, December 27, 1976.

 

Subsequent citations take a short form.

 

 

33. Habiger, interview; Jay, interview.

 

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