VOLUNTEERS WANTED
Have a "chat" with a Nisei Veteran
One of our top priorities is to transcribe interviews in our Hanashi Oral History collection in order to make it easy for students and researchers to accurately locate video segments of interest to their project.
It's a big job as we have over 1,150 interviews, and only a few hundred have been transcribed thus far.
So with the attitude that "many hands make light work" we are hanging out our "Volunteers Wanted" sign to tackle this project.
What's Involved
We will send you:
- Veteran interview.
- Getting started procedures and frequently asked questions (for example, what do I type when the interviewee says, "um….um…um…").
- Handy cheat sheet including names of towns in France, Italy, Japan, Philippines, etc.; Japanese phrases; military terminology, and other commonly-used words and phrases, courtesy of Sue Wosumi Williams, a long-time transcriptionist and editor on our Hanashi Oral History Project.
- Template for the transcription document that shows how to format the document, include time stamps, etc.
You'll listen to the interview and type the words – as best as you understand them. When you don't understand a word or phrase, you'll mark it with a code. When done, the text file is emailed back to our Hanashi Oral History Project.
Don't worry about getting it 100% accurate. When we receive your transcription we'll have an editor review for corrections and to fill in missing words.
System Requirements
- A disk drive on your computer that can read DVDs.
- Software to view a DVD (which should have come with your DVD hardware) on your PC or Mac.
- A document-writing program. A common program is Microsoft Word, which is compatible with our project. (If you use another program, such as WordPerfect, please contact us as you may need to store the file in a particular format to ensure compatibility.)
- Earphones (optional). Sometimes it helps to have earphones, especially when the veteran speaks softly or mumbles, or if you have a lot of ambient noise where you are working.
- Foot pedal (optional). Some transcriptionists like to use a foot pedal to control the stops, starts, rewinds.
What will you gain from volunteering? A feeling that you just had the honor of sitting down and chatting with someone who has been awarded our nation's highest civilian distinction: the Congressional Gold Medal, and who played a part in our country's efforts in World War II, and its march towards civil rights.
We think you'll find it a pretty awesome experience.
For more information, please email: hanashi@goforbroke.org.
