The second book in the five-volume Community Oral History Toolkit walks you through all the planning steps to travel from an idea to a completed collection of oral history interviews. Informed by an extensive survey of oral historians from across the country, this guide will get you started on firm ground so you don't get mired in unforeseen problems in the middle of your project. Designed especially for project administrators, it identifies participants and responsibilities that need to be covered, and details planning needs for everything from budgeting to technology, and from legal issues to ethics. Planning a Community Oral History Project sets the stage for the implementation steps outlined in Volume 3, Managing a Community Oral History Project.
About the Author: Barbara W. Sommer, M.A., has over twenty-five years of experience in the oral history field. She has been principal investigator and director of more than twenty major oral history projects and has taught at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Vermilion Community College. She is a long-time member of the Oral History Association and is author of many key publications in the field, including, with Mary Kay Quinlan, The Oral History Manual, 2nd ed. (AltaMira Press, 2009) and with Charles E. Trimble and Mary Kay Quinlan, The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard (Left Coast Press, Inc., 2008). Her award-winning book Hard Work and a Good Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2008) draws on oral history interviews about the Civilian Conservation Corps, as does her essay, "'We Had This Opportunity: ' African Americans and the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota," in The State We're In: Reflections on Minnesota History, Annette Atkins and Deborah L. Miller, eds, (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2010). She also is the author of a history of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln based on oral history (University of Nebraska Press, 2012). She holds a bachelor's degree from Carleton College and a master's degree in history from the University of Minnesota.

Nancy MacKay, MLIS, has been straddling the line between libraries and oral history for more than twenty years. As a librarian she has worked with special collections, cataloging, and music in various academic settings. As an oral historian she teaches, consults, advises, and writes about oral history, especially oral history and archives. She directed the oral history program at Mills College, from 2001-2011, and currently teaches library science and oral history at San Jose State University. Current research interests include the condition of oral histories in repositories and a model for a metadata scheme for oral histories. Nancy is the author of Curating Oral Histories (Left Coast Press, Inc., 2007) and holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

Mary Kay Quinlan, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She has held positions as Baltimore Sun Distinguished Lecturer and William Randolph Hearst Visiting Professional at the University of Maryland, and has served as president of the National Press Club. She is editor of the Oral History Association Newsletter and co-author with Barbara Sommer of The Oral History Manual (AltaMira Press, 2002, 2009), Native American Veterans Oral History Manual (Nebraska Foundation for the Preservation of Oral History, 2005), and Discovering Your Connections to History (AASLH, 2000). She is also a co-author with Sommer and Charles E. Trimble of The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard (Left Coast Press, Inc., 2008).