Stories matter

Abstract

Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), http://storytelling.concordia.ca, is currently developing new oral history database software, entitled Stories Matter. As Michael Frisch notes, “[the] Deep Dark Secret of oral history is that nobody spends much time listening to or watching recorded and collected interview documents.”Instead, oral historians tend to privilege transcripts over voices, losing the meanings inherent in their interviews. By returning the orality to oral history, Stories Matter will make it possible for oral historians to engage with their interviews and their collections in a more holistic way.