PROCESSING INTERVIEWS

Conducting an interview is only a small part of the overall interview process, albeit the most satisfying part. Once completed, each interview goes through a process that can take as much as 30 to 40 hours of work for every hour of interview. Each interview is first transcribed, then edited, then sent to the narrator for his or her review for accuracy and correctness. Once returned, transcripts go through one final edit before being archived in the library and posted onto the internet. This process is very labor intensive and takes a skilled hand at every step. Regrettably, it often takes many months before we can make a transcript available to the public. And since conducting an interview is our first imperative (many of our narrators are of advanced age), we currently have a significant backlog of interviews to transcribe, edit, or otherwise process. It is our policy to post an interview's audio and video files onto the internet as soon as possible, along with an abstract and associated photographs and documents, and add the transcript only after the final edit. We will not post unedited, un-reviewed transcripts. Accordingly, we ask for your patience as we process an interview.

For more information on how we process our interviews, see the ALPL Transcribing and Editing Style Guide, at Documents/Resources. If you'd like to help us transcribe or edit interviews, see Volunteer Opportunities.