NOAA Voices Oral History Archives

The NOAA Voices Oral History Archives (VOHA) seeks to document the human experience as it relates to the changing environment, climate, oceans and coasts and other key areas of NOAAs work through firsthand oral history accounts from across the US and its territories. Oral histories contribute to NOAA's Mission of "Science, Service, and Stewardship" by creating, compiling, archiving and sharing the experiences of stakeholders, scientists and others.

Any individual or organization can participate in the VOHA program by contributing individual oral history interviews or collections of interviews that are related to the project scope and mission, or by using the interviews archived here in their research, scholarship, exhibits, or general use.

We accept oral histories produced by NOAA staff (including social scientists, historians, and others) as well as from from external organizations, universities, researchers and oral history practitioners. This content is made available to the public in this digital repository for educational and research purposes. The Voices Oral History Archives database is a powerful resource available to the public to inform, educate, and provide primary information for researchers interested in our local, human experience associated with the varied facets of NOAA's mission (including but not limited to Climate, Fisheries, Weather, Heritage, etc...)

Oral histories are conducted by NOAA scientists as well as by external researches and others. Prior to the establishment of the NOAA Voices Oral History Archives (VOHA) there was no in house repository for oral histories nor was there a mechanism to make these data available to the public for use and reuse. This type of qualitative at a provides incredibly rich detail about the environment, social context, relationships, values, and life of individuals living in coastal areas, through storms, fishing at sea, and in other ways intimately connected to NOAA's mission. VOHA provides a home for these resources so that they can be used by the public, researchers and others to understand social and environmental change. Oral histories contribute to NOAAs Mission of Science, Service, and Stewardship by creating, compiling, archiving and sharing the experiences of stakeholders, scientists and others. Any individual or organization can participate in the VOHA program by contributing individual oral history interviews or collections of oral history interviews that are related to the project scope and mission, or by using the interviews archived here in their research, scholarship, exhibits, or general use.

We work with prospective oral history practitioners to add interviews to our growing digital repository and the public to use and interact with our content for educational and research purposes. The Voices Oral History Archives database is a powerful resource available to the public to inform, educate, and provide primary information for researchers interested in our local, human experience connected to NOAA's mission.

Principal Investigator - Patricia Pinto da Silva, Northeast Fisheries Science Center

Content Manager/Oral Historian: Molly Graham, ECS

IT/Database support: Avi Litwack, NMFS Office of Science and Technology (ST6).

Funding for the management of this archive has come from mainly the NMFS Office of Science and Technology, Economics and Social Science Division though the project was started with a NOAA Preserve America Initiative Grant. Additional funding support has come from the NMFS Office of Education, NOAA Heritage and the National Weather Service.

www.voices.nmfs.noaa.gov

The NOAA mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans, and coasts, to share that knowledge and information with others, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources.

The Voices This disclaimer is presented on each interview page so that users are aware of the subjective nature of the VOHA content:

Oral History Archives offers public access to a wide range of accounts, including historical materials that are products of their particular times, and may contain offensive language or negative stereotypes. Voices Oral History Archives does not verify the accuracy of materials submitted to us. The opinions expressed in the interviews are those of the interviewee only. The interviews here have been made available to the public only after the interviewer has confirmed that they have obtained consent.

The database sits on a server at the NOAA Fisheries Office of Science and Technology - ST6. All data is accessible to the public via - www.voices.nmfs.noaa.gov.

This dataset is added to and managed weekly.

As of 2022, there are approximately 2200 records associated with this database. Each record is associated with an individual oral history (recorded life experience). Each record includes the name of the narrator, the name of the interviewer, the date of the interview, the location, description of the interview. It also includes the name of the collection that the record is associated with assuming it is part of a collection of interviews conducted by a an individual or organization.

interviewer, interviewee, location, date, abstract, collection name

Is fully available to the public and can be used for educational and research purposes. Interview transcript files can be provided upon request.

available to the public for research and educational purposes on: www.voices.nmfs.noaa.gov

These data are available to the public and can be used and reused for educational and research purposes. Access to full documents can be requested by email to voices@noaa.gov or patricia.pinto.da.silva@noaa.gov

This data is available to the public and is open access. Files can be requested for use from voices@noaa.gov or patricia.pinto.da.silva@noaa.gov

With release permission granted from narrator and interviewer, these materials are available to the public.

Not for commercial purposes.

none.

The NOAA Voices Oral History Archives holds audio files, PDF's and image files. Some entries have all files (are complete) and others have only audio or only transcripts of the oral history entry. our files have to be digitized for inclusion. We accept interviews and associated materials in the following file types: interview transcription and other text files in .PDF format; picture files in .BMP, .JPG, and .JPEG formats; audio files in .MP3 format; and digital video files in .AVI, .MP4, .MPG, and .WMV formats. These file types minimize download time for those accessing interviews. No other file formats are accepted. Written materials must be saved as PDF files.

Unless oral histories are submitted without identifying information, an entry will appear with the narrators full name and any identifying information they share in their recorded or transcribed interview.

The NOAA Voices Oral History Archive does not verify the accuracy of materials submitted to us. The opinions expressed in the interviews are those of the interviewee only and are made available to the public with their consent.

These recordings and transcripts document the experiences of the narrator as they are remembered by and described by the narrator.

Interviews and collections are reviewed by program staff for quality and relevance to the NOAA mission.

Archival of source data preserving unaltered collected data, Scheduled backups, Remote storage backups, Password protection

The Voices Project accepts interviews and associated materials in the following file types: interview transcription and other text files in .PDF format; picture files in .BMP, .JPG, and .JPEG formats; audio files in .MP3 format; and digital video files in .AVI, .MP4, .MPG, and .WMV formats. These file types minimize download time for those accessing interviews. No other file formats are accepted. Written materials must be saved as PDF files. At this time we cannot accept letters, diaries, and maps. Additionally, we cannot accept artifacts like fishing gear, other fishing technology, and so forth. We also accept listings of work derived or based on fisheries oral histories. Some examples include films, books, and websites.