Examines a historian's experiences and impressions gained while interviewing the immigrant generation in a community of Jewish chicken farmers in Petaluma, California. Information is presented on the differences in attitudes and aspirations between generations, interview techniques, problems of interviewer credibility, and problems of…

Microcomputers can offer much assistance in one of the major problems that faces virtually every oral history program--organizing, manipulating, and making available the vast quantities of historical data collected. How to automate an oral history program is described. The database management system dBASE II is discussed. (RM)

To overcome problems of trivia and nostalgia, a problem-centered approach to community oral history projects is proposed. Instead of cataloging details about aspects of past social life, the projects might shape their inquiry as an effort to understand a problem facing the community, a problem with contemporary significance but historical roots.…

The oral history activities in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia are not yet near the point where they can rival the impressive oral history projects carried out in Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil. (RM)

To focus only on collecting traditional forms of folklore can mean missing important forms of oral history and literature. Stories from French Louisiana are used to illustrate the continuing tradition of oral literature in the region and the way in which oral history is altered for the listener's entertainment. (IS)

In the course of collecting and recording oral histories, there is a tendency to overemphasize the individual account and forget the social context. To learn more about social relationships, one can focus on the teller's position, similarities and oppositions in different tellers' versions, and categories used by the teller. (IS)

The major aim of the Manchester Studies Unit, based at Manchester Polytechnic in the north of England, is to preserve, research, and make available the popular history of the Manchester region. How this project has used oral history within community projects is described. (RM)