Texas Oral History Locator Database (TOLD)
In the summer of 2022, the Texas Oral History Association (TOHA) and Baylor University Institute for Oral History (BUIOH) partnered to create a new online resource for researchers. The Texas Oral History Locator Database, or TOLD, utilizes survey data provided by collection managers across the State of Texas to identify as many oral history collections as possible. In the resulting database found below, users can easily search a compiled list of oral history holdings and be connected with their collection websites/collection managers.
Do you oversee an oral history collection and would like to add it to the database?
Click here to take the Phase One Survey!Are you ready to augment your collection information with project details?
Click here to take the Phase Two Survey!
Phase One of TOLD enables respondents to provide basic archival and collection-based information about the oral histories they manage. Phase Two is a repeatable survey targeted at the project level that will allow collection managers to further describe the content of their oral histories. This added element will allow for a deeper level of engagement when researchers filter or search for specific terms or categories across all entries. Once participants submit their surveys they should typically expect to see their data represented in the database within a week!
Search the Database
Have a Question or Want to Participate?
Each survey will take approximately 15-30 minutes to complete and will require you to know basic collection-level or project-level information regarding your oral history holdings. The Phase Two survey allows you to select which collection you are entering data for and is repeatable, allowing each project's data to be entered independently and at your leisure. In Phase Two you can add more details about the distinct projects in your collection (such as themes, populations, and eras), or even a list of interviewee names. This data will be fully text-searchable and featured in various filters of the database search to provide users additional ways to find your materials.
For the sake of the surveys and the database, Archive means the physical location that houses the oral history materials, Collection means all the oral history materials found at the archive, and Project are distinct groups of interviews found within the greater collection. Therefore, a collection can house multiple projects, or consist of only one, or simply be a grouping of random interviews gathered over the years. If your collection does not contain distinct projects then simply fill out the Phase Two survey once representing all interviews in the collection and under Project Name type the word "Complete."
If you have any questions about the surveys or the database itself, please contact TOLD Project Lead Steven Sielaff (BUIOH Senior Editor & Collection Manager/TOHA Editor-in-Chief, Sound Historian) at Steven_Sielaff@baylor.edu.