Ref: MAT2_M01

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Part M: Technical –Media Transfer Process related for Oral Hist Project:

Jack and Wanda; Wanda and Jack: Parallel Lives

The process for actually capturing the audio or video and producing transcripts of the interviews might be of interest to others considering such a project. Attention should be given to time required to process and present recorded material. The extent of editing and rearranging of material undertaken will considerably affect the process.

M.1. All on a CD :

A CD version will include everything mentioned above with the addition of as much of the actual audio files which will fit. As a follow up to this project and as time and resources allow, a separate or additional CDs or DVD disk could be used to also make available the audio and video files.

Table of Contents
Item Number; sort	Elec. Doc Number	Short Title	Description note	Master elec directory
				Heading
M		Technical -Media Format related Note: The process used:	Use of video, Audio tape recording, transcribing, CD mastering etc.	Heading
M1		Recording of interviews
M1.a		Recorded via a small tape recorder on to cassette tape	All interviews before August 2000
M2		Recorded on digital video cameras. ..	All interviews after July 2000, Panasonic DV-200
M2.a		The image and sound on the Digital Video tape were transferred to a computer	A firewire connection was used between the DV camera and computer. Digital Origin Edit software was used to transfer and capture segments in two gigabyte GB sections. Each segment = about nine minuets of recorded video.
M2.b		The audio portion of the imported material was copied to a separate file	Combining all the audio tracks from each interview session. The multiple two gigabyte video track was the source.
M2.c		The combined digital audio track from each interview was then played back	through the external speakers but could have been through a wire connection
M2.d		picked up by microphone connected to transcriber as input	The transcriber was recording onto cassette tape
M3		This audio cassette tape was then used for the transcription with the transcriber machine	Transcriber had foot pedal to use in moving forward and re-winding the tape in short segments. Using the foot pedal cut the transcribing time at lest in half.
M3.a		IN some cases the typist just played the tape using the transcriber machine and typed what was heard	A draft transcript was produced
M3.b		Sometimes the transcriber machine was used to play with headphones to the typist . The typist then spoke what was heard into the microphone to computer voice recognition software.	Dragon naturally speaking voice recognition software that was trained to the typist voice
M4		Reformatting and simple editing was performed by transcriber/ typist.	Word Processing Spelling checker was used Transcripts from later interviews had table of contents and subject index added
M5		Create A Web site to place and link the files	Use Microsoft “FrontPage” Software
M5.1		Save the file as a HTM file to be easily on any web browser	Then link to other files in different sections of web site
M6		Scan some non-electronic files into tiff images
M6.1		Use OCR software to read a text file
M6.2.		For files with both text and images transfer to PDF format	Adobe Acrobat
M6.2.a		Some of the older files [e.g. Alaska Highway] with both image and text and other family photographs were digitally copies by a commercial printer. firm transfer the images to tiff and pdf files	The vendor transferred the images to tiff and pdf files This can be an expensive. But quality of the images can be better. The images may also be used for printing process at a later date with out losing resolution or image quality..
M7		Place individual pictures to a word document. Then transfer to htm format.	This automatically creates smaller size JPG files for each folder.
M7.1		Create separate Word document with table format and captionsto insert the jpeg format photos	For this separate word Doc use only the jpeg compressed files
See also E		Technical – Interview Process.