Research Method and Tools
To select people for interviewing we used the “snowball” method. That is, the informants were people whom Archive personnel had already come in contact with, other immigrants known in the community or who had received media attention, and suggestions made by the informants themselves about others who might be interviewed. People working with immigrants also suggested names. As a result, the “snowball” rolled in many directions and the researchers continually got new tips about immigrants interested in being interviewed.
It can’t be emphasized enough how important personal contact has been for the project. We were often present at multi- cultural arrangements and meeting places. The word “archive” can carry a strange or negative tone for some; it is easy to say “no” if a stranger calls and asks for an interview. But if that person has already greeted someone earlier and talked a bit with them, confidence begins to be established and it is easier to let the person in with questions.
For an exhibit at the start of the main research project, we took pictures of 100 new Oppland residents living around the county. Therefore many contacts were made which led later to interviews. In addition, an exhibit was created which provided many valuable contacts when it was assembled at Maihaugen and later sent to libraries around Oppland County.
An “open interview” method was used meaning that we left the interview form to explore themes that came up in the course of the interviews. It has been important to bring forward what the interview subjects themselves were eager to tell or emphasize. All the oral interviews have been stored within a computer program (Asta) shared among archives.
Good tools are important to produce good work.
An interview guide was developed and tested in the pilot project. Certain small adjustments were made before the main project but these were not significant enough to hinder comparisons among all the interviews. Interview questions were organized around themes; the most important were the person’s background, their life in Norway and contact with its culture and way of living, experiences in moving to Norway from another country, employment situation, contact with their homeland, plans for the future, and language problems.
The informants each signed a declaration of consent which included detail as to how each one wanted the interview to be used, for example, with full name, a fictive name, anonymously, or according to their own restrictions.
The researchers also developed a separate form to be filled out regarding the most important background information. Here was additional room for comments about occurrences and conversation themes before and after the interview together with a summary of the informant’s biography and contents of the recording.
To obtain the most from this project, we developed the written information in Norwegian, English, Bosnian and Polish. Additionally, we created a separate brochure about the project for handing out at various events.