According to the Oral History Association's Core Principles:
Oral history refers to both the interview process and the products that result from a recorded spoken interview (whether audio, video, or other formats). In order to gather and preserve meaningful information about the past, oral historians might record interviews focused on narrators’ life histories or topical interviews in which narrators are selected for their knowledge of a particular historical subject or event. Once completed, an interview, if it is placed in an archive, can be used beyond its initial purpose with the permission of both the interviewer and narrator (OHA n.d.).
OHA Principles and Best Practices by the Oral History Association (OHA)
Information and Guidance for Oral Historians by the International Oral History Association (IOHA)
How to Do Oral History by the Smithsonian Institution Archives
Independent Practitioners' Toolkit for Oral Historians by the Independent Practitioners' Task Force of the Oral History Association
Oral History Handbook by the New York City Trans Oral History Project
Guidelines for Social Justice Oral History Work by the Oral History Association
"IHP-EIHS Symposium: Approaches to Oral History and the Work of Inclusive History" posted by the National Center for Institutional Diversity, recorded 19 April 2024.
Oral histories play an important role in filling gaps, both intentional and unintentional, in the historical and archival record. These silences are often the result of wealth and power imbalances and other prejudices that controlled what was or was not included in the historical record (Zinn, 1977; Punzalan & Casewell, 2016). Interviews allow us to hear from individuals and communities we may not have heard from otherwise. The method gives those individuals and communities the agency to tell their stories in their own voices, largely free from the influences found in the written record (Adair et al., 2011).
Hughes-Watkins, Lae'l. "Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices." Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies 5, iss. 1. https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol5/iss1/6.
Punzalan, Ricardo L., and Michelle Caswell. “Critical Directions for Archival Approaches to Social Justice.” The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy 86, no. 1 (2016): 25–42. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26561647.
Zinn, Howard. "Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest." The Midwestern Archivist 2, iss. 2 (1977): 14-26. https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/44118.
Letting Go? by When designing an oral history project, it is important to consider various aspects such as privacy, audience, end use, and access, all of which can impact how you record and display your oral histories. Beyond privacy, these considerations must be balanced against the resources and capabilities of your project or organization. However, it is still valuable to understand how different factors will influence or guide the design of your project.
Ethics in Oral History
Beyond Women's Words by 
A Guide to Oral History and the Law by 
Practicing Oral History to Connect University to Community by Oral histories sometimes cover emotionally charged or intense subjects. Therefore, it is good practice for interviewers to consider how they can minimize potential harm to the interviewee, the interviewee's associates or community, and the interviewer themselves.
Houston-Kolnik, Jaclyn, Hannah Feeney, and Rebecca Pfeffer. "Incorporating a Victim-Centered, Trauma-Informed Lens to Research." RTI International. 28 July 2023. https://www.rti.org/insights/trauma-informed-research.
Thompson, Taylor, and Kae Bara Kratcha. "Talking Trauma-Informed Oral History Project Design with Gabriel Solis." Columbia: Oral History Master of Arts. 10 May 2021. http://oralhistory.columbia.edu/blog-posts/talking-trauma-informed-oral-history-project-design-with-gabriel-solis.
