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Re: Oral History transcription question



On Mon, 25 Feb 2002, Lisa Moellering wrote:

> We are in the process of determining costs for having a number of our oral
> history transcripts re-transcribed. Can anyone give me an estimate on what
> transcribers charge per page and/or any recommendations of professional
> transcribers?

There are usually advertisements in oral history and archival journals. I
tell people every time I do one I raise the price $10 a tape hour, not
that I'm in the transcription business, but it is very difficult work.

Price also depends on what you are paying for.  Do you expect the person
to be able to correct spellings of personal and place names?  Technical
vocabulary?  Indexing?  Or just "sounds like?"  I spend a lot of time
looking at maps, phone directories, etc.--certainly no name authority
files exist for what I'm doing.

If you think people always know how to spell the name of their childhood
friend, or a faculty member they worked with for 10 years, guess again!
I've known people for over 30 years who can't spell or pronounce my
surname.

When I've billed for work, I've had comments to the effect "that's too
much to pay," even if it's really less than $6 a page for mere typing, and
not indexing and abstracting.

Take one I'm finishing, it's 45 pp (single spaced), plus 2 pages of
abstract and curriculum vitae, and three pages of index.  It was a three
hour interview.  If I were charging say, $85 a tape hour to transcribe it,
it would be $255, or at $6 a (single spaced) page for the transcription,
$270.  That's nothing for the time to index, write the abstract and create
some sort of resume/CV to put the fellow in context.  You can't rely on
indexing mechanically with word-searching or you'll miss indirect
references.

This interview is a "freebie" which I conducted because the interviewee
was interesting and it would help with background for another project I'm
working on.  I'll donate it to the appropriate repository with consent
forms, etc.


Carole Nowicke


Carole E. Nowicke, Ph.D., M.L.S., C.P.P.
Reference Librarian
Indiana Prevention Resource Center  <http://www.drugs.indiana.edu>
cnowicke@indiana.edu  <http://php.ucs.indiana.edu/~cnowicke>
Historian, International Tuba-Euphonium Association
List Owner Dressage-L <Dressage-L@Listserv.Indiana.edu>

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