Research Approval Granted and Recording Equipment Ready!

Last week, we got the wonderful news from the Institutional Review Board at UC Irvine that our project protocol has been approved. Translated into layman’s terms, that means we are a “go” for surveying and interviewing Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. That also means we were able to send out a formal UCI Press Release and launch a campaign to publicize the project, to recruit volunteers and potential interview subjects, and to build the excitement and momentum for what we are trying to accomplish in three years!

As I have been waiting for research approval, I also ordered oral history recording equipment. Since this project is being built from the ground, our initial investments include not only labor but the high cost of professional quality oral history field recording equipment.  The last two weeks have been like Christmas coming early in the office as recorders, memory cards, and other gadgets trickle in from various online vendors. Yesterday, I visited Jim’s Music in Tustin, California where the very helpful sales people let me test different microphones with my Marantz PMD 660 recorder (with the Oade Brothers performance enhancement). After careful research and recommendations by our friends at the Center for Oral and Public History at CSU Fullerton, I decided that this recorder is definitely worth the investment. I’ve also purchased a handful of Zoom H2 Handy Recorders to be loaned to students in next quarter’s “Vietnamese American Experience” class, since they will also be trained to become oral historians!

The recording equipment (including microphone and mic stand) used by professional oral historians is quite similar to equipment found among musicians…which is why I’m feeling like a rock star right about now with all my equipment ready to go!