Volunteers are crucial to the success of the ALPL Oral History Program, and help out in a variety of tasks. There are four main tasks our volunteers perform, listed below. If you're interested in helping as a volunteer, we can promise you’ll be given tasks that are both interesting and challenging. Please contact Mark DePue, the Director of Oral History.
Interviewers
After completing an Interviewer Workshop, prospective interviewers are assigned to one of the program's interview projects and matched with a prospective interviewee. Volunteers use the Oral History programs digital equipment and must adhere to the standards as explained in the workshop.
Transcribers
Prospective transcribers are asked to attend our Transcribing and Editing workshop, where they will learn the techniques of transcribing and be introduced to the computer software and hardware used. Transcribing is done at the Library at one of several transcribing stations.
Auditors
Auditors compare the draft transcript with the actual audio file to ensure that the transcriber accurately recorded what was said in the interview.
Editors
Once transcribed and audited, each interview is edited with the aim of improving readability while still preserving the substantive accuracy of the interview as well as the narrator's distinctive personality. Therefore, attendance at a Transcribing and Editing workshop is required. Editors are asked to use one of the Library's editing stations.
To volunteer, please see our ALPLM Volunteer page.
For information on the Oral History Program, contact:
Mark DePue
Director of Oral History
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
112 North 6th Street
Springfield, IL 62701
(217) 558-8949
mark.depue@illinois.gov