Evaluating the Contributions of Video Representation for a Life Oral History Collection

Abstract

A digital video library of over 900 hours of video and 18000 stories from The HistoryMakers is used to investigate the role of motion video for users of recorded life oral histories. Stories in the library are presented in one of two ways in two within subjects experiments: either as audio accompanied by a single still photographic image per story, or as the same audio within a motion video of the interviewee speaking. Twenty-four participants given a treasure-hunt fact-finding task, i.e., very directed search, showed no significant preference for either the still or video treatment, and no difference in task performance. Fourteen participants in a second study worked on an exploratory task in the same within-subjects experimental framework, and showed a significant preference for video. For exploratory work, video has a positive effect on user satisfaction. Implications for use of video in collecting and accessing recorded life oral histories, in student assignments and more generally, are discussed, along with reflections on long term user studies to complement the ones presented here.