Little Texas Stories: Recording Interviews on a Smartphone

Location: Austin Central Library Room SLR 621 (710 W. Cesar Chavez St, Austin, TX 78701)

Session 1: 1:30 - 2:15 PM (45 Minutes)

Session 2: 3:00 - 3:45 PM (45 Minutes)

Description:

Texas Folklife is participating in Digital Inclusion Week! In this workshop, participants will learn how to use their smartphones to conduct oral history interviews. A staff member from Texas Folklife will provide a crash course on recording principles and how to record interviews on a smartphone. Participants will also learn how to submit interviews for Texas Folklife’s crowdsourced project, Little Texas Stories. Supporting materials will be provided on Google Drive. 

Requirements:

• Participants should have basic knowledge of using a smartphone (iPhone or Android) and bring the smartphone to the workshop. 
• We’ll be using the Voice Memos app for this workshop. Participants may need to connect to the library’s wifi to download and install the app.

Tech requirements: 

If available, please bring a pair of earbuds or headphones (NOT with a built-in microphone) that work with your smartphone. 

• Wireless earbuds will work with any device that has Bluetooth enabled

• Wired earbuds: For iphones, your earbuds will need to have a lightning plug. For androids, your earbuds will need to have a ⅛” plug

ABOUT LITTLE TEXAS STORIES

Little Texas Stories is a crowdsourced project that invites community members, youth, and educators to submit short interviews to be archived and disseminated through Texas Folklife. 

Participants conduct short (15-30 minute) interviews with someone in their community and ask them about an important living tradition in their lives. Interviewees share stories about their personal experiences, memories, and activities related to the tradition. 

Traditions may include celebrations, gatherings, and festivals, foodways (e.g. cooking), arts and crafts (e.g. music, dance, costume or mask-making), labor (e.g. work practices), verbal arts (e.g. spoken word, storytelling), beliefs, and more. 

These should be living traditions - e.g. something the person has experienced first hand, either in the present or past, and ideally they are passed down from person to person - as opposed to through books, manuscripts, or by institutions. 

Learn more about documenting folklife through the American Folklife Center.