The Special Collections Division has two ongoing oral history projects, the Civil Rights Oral History Project and the Veterans History Project. We also collect manuscript materials, ephemera, photographs, etc., as part of these projects in addition to conducting oral history interviews.

Civil Rights Oral History Project (CROHP)
Veterans History Project (VHP)

The division is also in the process of developing a Nashville Business Leaders Oral History Project. The Special Collections Center, scheduled to be opened in Fall 2006, will have space dedicated to recording oral histories. More information about these projects will be forthcoming.

In addition to interviews conducted by the library, the Division also houses other oral history projects conducted by other organizations, including Historic Nashville, Inc. For a brief description of these collections, please click here. In order for the Division to accept any new donations of oral history interviews conducted by other entities, they must meet certain guidelines.

The Division has undertaken a project to convert much of our analog oral history resources to digital format. We will also soon be recording our oral history interviews in digital format. We will then be making the digital files accessible via the internet.

Online Oral History Resources

Oral History Workshop on the Web (Baylor University)
Includes an introduction to oral history, transcribing style guide, information about how to conduct interviews and organize projects, principles for family oral history, and a basic oral history bibliography.

Judith Moyer's Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History
Includes an introduction to oral history, guidelines and suggestions, information about paperwork requirements, information about issues in oral history research, an oral history bibliography, and links.

Oral History Association
Includes information about the association, which is the United States professional oral history organization, as well as OHAs Evaluation Guidelines, which provide a checklist of issues to consider when planning an oral history project and with which anyone planning an oral history project should become familiar.

Southern Oral History Program How To
Resources for Planning and Conducting Oral History Interviewsincludes the SOHP guidebook on designing, executing, and processing oral history interviews, SOHP interview forms, and an oral history bibliography.