The Necessity of Using Keywords for Oral History Sources (part II)

What are the characteristics of keywords?

Hamid Qazvini
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2020-6-2

In the previous part of this note, it was emphasized that the insertion of keyword is one of the necessities of writing any scientific and research text; that the texts of oral history are no exception.

Keywords, words, or combinations are derived from text and are related to the main topic, which can be used to summarize the content of text and sub-tittles. In fact, keywords increase the speed and amount in usability of text.

Keywords also help to standardize text in databases and cyberspace, and facilitate audience access to works. To prepare the keywords, you should pay attention to following points:

1-Inserting the keyword requires full knowledge of text and observing the professional details related to it. Therefore, before choosing the keywords, the text of the interview should be read carefully and after knowing the full content of the interview, work should be done. Obviously, haste will damage this step.

2-Although the title of each interview is the most important element of recognizing the content of a text and retrieving it in archives and Internet searches, the original title should not be used in keywords. Keywords represent the sub-tittles and details in the text, and the main and general topics are not going to be repeated.

3-Precise, correct and appropriate words should be used to prepare keywords. Common words and expressions in colloquial, local, business, or dumb words should not used as keywords.

4-AS some irrelevant issues are sometimes discussed in the interviews of oral history, if the issues are important, interviewer can select keywords.

5- As mentioned sources are first included in the archives of internal institutions and Persian-language internet spaces, Persian words should be used in the selection of keywords. English terms or words belonging to other languages, even if they are common in a part of society, cannot be included in the list of keywords. Obviously, if the sources are going to be translated into other languages, the common words and expressions in the target language can be used for the keywords.

6-Keywords are not definitive and immutable modifications. After a while, new keywords may need to be modified and completed due to new topics in the community or a more complete understanding of an interview, or a change in the web or search engines.

The End