Oral History

Oral Histories can be found within Southwest Collection holdings in the following areas:

• The Southwest Collection's oral history collection
  • the main holdings of the archive, encompassing nearly 7,000 recordings done by SWC staff dating back to the 1950s
  • Interviews are consistently abstracted (list of keywords) and placed on the SWC OH Wiki website
  • If available, a transcript will be placed on the SWC dspace site (primarily for interviews 2010 onward)
  • Note: interviews may also be found via worldcat catalog records
• Donated oral history collections
  • totaling nearly 7,000 recordings. A list can be found here
• Oral histories included with manuscript collections
  • Information, when available, will be included on TARO finding aids

Interviews with releases on file can be accessed online via a transcript will be available on our digital repository. At this time we do not have streaming options. Check out our Dspace and then scroll down to oral history to browse available transcripts. If there is an interview you are interested in accessing remotely that is not currently available, please contact the oral history archivist or our reference staff. They can check on its release status and transcript availability. 

All of our estimated 6,750 interviews have been digitized and can be accessed in our Reading Room at any time. For the safety and preservation of the original recordings, a CD will be provided to listen to in-house. If you travel to the Southwest Collection, you will not be handling the interview in its original format but instead will be listening to a digital copy of the original interview.

Please contact Reference Staff at least 72 hours prior to your planned arrival to the Southwest Collection to ensure that the interview is ready for you. In your request, please include the name of the interviewee and date of interview. Reference staff can then check our holdings, and confirm or clarify your research needs.

Click for hours of operation and general policies. Contact our reference department for further access questions. 

Duplications are only available for family members. Click here for further usage information, as well as here for the duplication form.