If you are interviewing someone in person, make sure to follow all appropriate state and federal guidelines for social distancing. Your health and the health of the interviewee are of absolute importance.
We suggest using your smartphone to audio- or video-record the interview, though you can also use a video camera if you have one. Record the interview in a quiet area in little-to-no background noise where you won’t be disturbed. Do a small audio test before the interview to check the quality of the sound and make any necessary adjustments. You can also use Zoom to conduct interviews, as Zoom as an option to record meetings.
Have your interview questions ready before you start. Ask follow-up questions, but stick to the general outline you prepared. This will help keep the interview structured and on-track.
At the start of the interview, state your name and the date. Have the interviewee then state their name, age, hometown, occupation, where they currently live, and their relation to the Xavier community (student, employee, etc).
For interview questions, you can ask anything that is relevant to COVID-19. Ask open-ended questions to encourage longer, more detailed responses, rather than asking yes-or-no questions. If you need help coming up with questions, you can use our Writing Prompts page for some suggestions.
If you need to pause the interview for any reason, make note of that in the recording by saying “Interview paused at [current time/date]” and then “Interview resumed at [current time/date]” when you begin again.
There is no minimum or maximum length for the interview. You can end whenever you have asked all your questions or when you feel that the interview has reached an endpoint.
Remember that the interviewee can stop the interview at any point and that they can also revoke consent to have the interview submitted to the Archives and Special Collections.
Both the interviewer and the interviewee need to fill out the Google Form for submissions. Only one person needs to upload the file, but all parties involved must submit a form (the Archives and Special Collections needs consent from everyone to accept submissions).
Listen to the audio/video before uploading it to check the quality. Transcriptions of the interview are not necessary for submissions but if you do create one, be sure to include it in the same upload as the audio/video of the interview.