To apply, please complete the application form and return it with the required attachments by January 15, 2010. The grant recipient will be announced by January 29, 2010. Apply for the Baylor Community Oral History Grant To ask questions, e-mail or call us at 254-710-3437.

Community Oral History Grant

The Baylor Institute for Oral History will support the local organization receiving the grant in the following ways:
• supporting the oral history project with a one-time grant of $2,500
• conducting a training workshop in oral history research for project volunteers
• loaning two digital recorders to the project for conducting oral history interviews
• consulting with project organizers and volunteers throughout the project
• processing, duplicating, and transcribing the oral history recordings
• making the oral history transcripts accessible online
• co-depositing the recordings and transcripts at Baylor University and a local public archive chosen by the organization receiving the grant

The local organization will initiate the project, carry out the interviews in a timely fashion, and develop and arrange public programming to share the outcomes with its community. Resources are available to help nonprofit community groups initiate oral history projects. Begin with these materials available from our Workshop on the Web: Introduction to Oral History and Organizing Oral History Projects. The Oral History Association provides Using Oral History in Community History Projects (2007; $15.00), which offers concrete suggestions for planning, organizing, and undertaking oral history in community settings, including a step-by-step guide to project planning and establishing project objectives. Click here for ordering information.

If awarded the Baylor Community Oral History Grant, the applying organization agrees to accomplish the following project steps within the calendar year that the grant is awarded:
• arrange a day, time, and place for a training/planning workshop
• assemble for the training workshop several persons who are committed to doing the interviews
• locate a local public archive that will preserve and make accessible the recordings/transcripts
• develop an interview release agreement for the project that names Baylor University and the chosen local archive as co-depositories for the interviews
• manage digital recording equipment
• locate and contact interviewees; arrange interview days, times, places
• conduct interviews
• obtain required signatures on interview release forms
• create a word list of proper names and unique spellings for each interview
• submit recordings and accompanying forms (release form, data sheets, word list, notes) to the Institute
• plan, arrange, publicize, and carry through a public program to share the outcomes with the community

The organization will complete the grant agreement with the following steps:
• receiving the draft transcripts and distributing them to the interviewees
• assisting the interviewees in checking their draft transcripts for accurate spellings and meaning
• returning the checked transcripts to the Institute for corrections
• receiving the bound, edited transcripts and presenting them to the interviewees
• presenting the depository copies of the bound, edited transcripts and recordings to the designated local archive.