Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive
The Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive of California State University, Long Beach provides access to the full audio recordings of oral histories that have been deposited in Special Collections of the University Library – enabling you, the user, to hear the voice, pitch, and rhythm of the narrations as well as the emotions these convey. You will hear the actual spoken words of oral history narrators, rather than seeing a written version of them in the form of a transcript.
The CSULB oral history collections have been assembled from a number of sources and cover topics ranging from women’s social history and ethnic studies to Long Beach Area history and the Arts in Southern California. Some of the interviews in the Asian-American, Mexican-American and women’s history collections date back to 1972 and include interviews with narrators born as early as the 1860s.
Presently, more than three hundred hours of Los Angeles basin oral histories in women’s, labor history and Long Beach area history are available online, including forty hours of interviews with California women who were rank and file activists in the national suffrage movement. You will be able to listen to any segment of an interview, after reviewing the segment synposis, or you can select segments across interviews based on topic searches. While you will be able to listen to the streamed sound, you will not be able to download it without authorization. For a copy of any sound file, please complete the permission form and submit your request. A small fee will be charged for the shipping and handling of a CD or tape cassette.
The Real Audio player is required for listening to the audio segments. If you do not have the free player on your machine, please download it from Real Networks first (be certain to search out the free RealOne Player unless you’d prefer to pay for the extra features of the “plus” version and/or subscribe to their media channels).
This site incorporates alternative layouts for viewing the pages, one designed for the latest web browsers, another that will work better with older browsers, and one for use with audio screenreaders. You may switch back and forth among these by selecting the options page from the main navigation buttons.
Note:
The above description of the CSULB Virtual Oral/Aural History Archive is from their website. While the site may have been designed for the latest browser at the time, the navigation and use of the RealAudio format makes this site quite cumbersome and difficult to use by today’s standards.
In the future we hope to provide more straightforward access to the audio files.