Oral history is a vital component of local history research.
The oral historian researches the time during which a person lived, gathers biographical information on the person, prepares questions for the interview, then conducts and records the interview. Scholars doing local history research then use the tape and the transcript in a library or an archive. In them are found the thousands of personal stories that typically are not written in history books nor lectured about by professors. These comprise a vital part of many historical library collections. It has been my privilege, through the Creative Pathways program, to work as an oral historian at the Tempe Historical Museum for the past few months.