Enrichment · Passion Projects

An hour of stories,
findable in seconds.

Listen back and start a new segment whenever the topic changes: the time, a topic, a few keywords and the people and places named. The index works out how long each part runs, catches times out of order, and keeps the narrator’s permission next to the recording.

Index an interviewWhat you get

Interviews

The worked example is a made-up family project: a grandmother’s story of a dairy farm and a move to the city, and an uncle’s call whose index has a time out of order and no release yet. Interviews save on this device only.

Loading the interview form. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

What you get

Enrichment · Passion ProjectsFree

What you finish with
An index per interview with narrator, interviewer, date, place, length and file name; the release, permitted uses and restrictions; segments with start time, topic, keywords and people and places; a summary; segment lengths worked out; flags for a missing release, badly written or out-of-order times and times past the end; segment and keyword counts across interviews.
Who it is for
Students doing family history, heritage and history fair projects, teachers who assign oral histories, and families and community groups recording elders.
Format
Browser index with a saved record per interview. Prints an interview’s index, all interviews or a blank index sheet; downloads a spreadsheet (.csv); exports and imports a file.
Access
Free. No account, no sign-in and nothing to install. Everything you type stays in this browser; nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Passion Projects space in Caveat Enrichment.
Support
Questions about access, an order or a correction: team@caveatacademic.com.

How to use it

  1. Get the release signed before or right after recording.
  2. Enter the recording’s length and file name.
  3. Listen back with the index open; add a segment at each change of topic.
  4. Use the same keywords across interviews so they can be searched together.
  5. Write a short summary and print the index to keep with the recording.

Index an interview

Reading the recording

Where the time wentIntroductions and where she was born6:45Work on the family dairy farm10:35Moving to the city in 196213:45Meeting Grandpa at a church dance11:45Advice for grandchildren5:40Where the time wentIntroductions and where she was …6:45Work on the family dairy farm10:35Moving to the city in 196213:45Meeting Grandpa at a church dance11:45Advice for grandchildren5:40
Segment lengths come straight from the start times. A long segment is often two topics worth splitting, which makes the recording easier to search later.

Permission first

The Oral History Association’s principles ask interviewers to explain the purpose, get informed consent and a signed release, and honor any restrictions the narrator sets. A recording with no release should stay with the family until there is one.

Index, then transcribe

A full transcript takes several hours per hour of tape. An index with times and keywords gets most of the value in a fraction of the time, and makes it easy to choose which parts deserve a full transcript.

Sources

  1. Oral History Association. Principles and Best Practices for Oral History (2018, oralhistory.org).
  2. Library of Congress, American Folklife Center. Folklife and Fieldwork: An Introduction to Cultural Documentation (4th ed., 2016).
  3. Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Smithsonian Folklife and Oral History Interviewing Guide.
  4. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky. OHMS: Oral History Metadata Synchronizer, on segment indexing.

The worked example is made up. Recordings of real people deserve care: get permission before you share anything. Nothing you type is sent to Caveat. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.