Thanks to all of you who have responded to my request for information on the above. As usual, I have had several very useful replies, and I am summarising these below:-

There are several links to organisations who run oral history projects:-

1/ The most obvious is of course the well known Oral History Society who has a very useful website and runs training courses http://www.ohs.org.uk/

2/ There is also the East Midlands oral history training links at this page http://www.le.ac.uk/emoha/training/links.html

3/ The British Library has a rich collection of oral histories within their sound archives http://www.bl.uk/oralhistory

4/ The living Archive in Milton-Keynes have a useful website giving tips on interview techniques and also run training courses, especially useful for those of you doing audio rather than film http://www.livingarchive.org.uk/docs/training/training2.html

5/ The Institute of Historical Research also run courses, but are not cheap http://www.history.ac.uk/study/training/courses/oral-history

6/ For those of you thinking about getting HLF funding, there is a helpful section on the subject http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/furtherresources/Documents/Thinking_about_Oral_history.pdf

There are often seminars run on oral histories, the most regular is the one organised by Stefan Dickers at the Bishopsgate Institute in London every 6 months or so; these are always advertised on the Archives NRA and are informal, generating good exchanges of ideas. The next one is tomorrow at 4:30pm, for further details contact Stefan directly [log in to unmask].

For involvement in Communities, there is no clear cut answer, as each project is different. The most important issues are deciding what you want to obtain from the interviews, the selection of interviewees, funding and last but not least, careful planning.

There is also the paperwork, forms recording the interviews and Copyright forms which enables you to use the interviews as you wish, and the interviewee to write any restrictions as to the use of their interviews. I have personally also found it useful to do as much background research on the subject and the interviewee as possible and to give interviewees a questionnaire in advance, which can be adapted during the interview. This gives them a chance to think back on what they did and also acts a useful guide for the interviewer. For filmed interviews, objects and memorabilia can be used which could help the interviewee with his/her memories.

It is useful to have a back up copy of the interview, preferably stored somewhere else, and also to do transcripts, volunteers can be used for this. Then there is the promotional side, via web pages, articles etc..

If anyone is planning an oral history project and would like copies of forms we use or general advice, please let me know, I would be happy to help if I can.

 Michele