Help us improve MemoirWell Optional analytics and affiliate tracking. We never send your writing or recordings. Affiliate order data is shared through Polar as described in our Privacy Policy. You can change this anytime.

MemoirWellStart free

A topic index for a recording you already have

An oral history interview log you can fill in and print.

Keep a route back to the parts of an interview you may want to hear again. Note a recording point, name the topic and summarize what is discussed, with unclear names or follow-up questions beside it.

Up to 20 segments · Your own time labels and notes · Text download · Blank or filled browser printing · No account

Getting the worksheet ready…

Your log stays in this page’s memory. It is not uploaded or autosaved: refreshing or closing clears it. Download text or print before leaving. Include only details you want in the saved copy.

Make a route back to the recording

Start with one segment and add up to twenty as you listen. All fields are optional. Entries stay in the order you add them; time labels are your own words, not playback controls.

Segment 1

Copy a timecode from your recording, or use a clear label such as near the beginning. This field does not seek, calculate or sort times.

A short description that will help you find this part again.

Summarize this part in your own words. Keep an uncertain memory or unclear name uncertain.

Names, relationships or places to revisit in the recording; mark spellings that need checking.

An unclear phrase, a question for later or a reference to check. A summary is not a word-for-word transcript.

Oral history interview log

A manual topic index. Return to the original recording to check wording and context.

Person speaking
____________________
Interviewer
____________________
Interview date or period
____________________
Recording reference or filename
____________________
Context or access notes
____________________

Made with MemoirWell · memoirwell.com/tools/oral-history-interview-log

Listening notes
#Recording pointTopicSummary or follow-up
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

A table of contents for the conversation

Listen to the recording you keep separately. At a useful change of topic, copy the time shown by your player or write another clear recording-point label. Give the segment a short topic name, then summarize the discussion in your own words. Keep unsure spellings and possible follow-up questions separate from what you heard clearly.

The Boston Public Library oral history forms guide describes a time log as brief descriptions of important topics with timestamps, like a table of contents for an interview. The Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life’s archiving guide recommends chronological topic notes and time notations to help locate moments in a recording. This is an original MemoirWell worksheet for that manual indexing task.

A fictional example

Recording: Jo-porch-interview.wav, date uncertain. Recording point: 00:12:40. Topic: The first apartment. Summary: Jo remembers carrying a kitchen table upstairs with two cousins. Names to check: whether the helper was Rosa or Ruth. Follow-up: listen again before quoting the story. A log helps locate that part; the recording remains the place to check the words and context.

Choose notes, questions or a transcript

A log is an index, not a word-for-word transcript. Prepare a future conversation with family interview question cards. Use the document transcription worksheet when your task is to preserve written wording. Nothing moves between these tools automatically; save each copy before leaving.

Before you save your log

Is this a free printable oral history interview log template?

Yes. Print a blank listening sheet with identifying fields and fifteen rows, or fill in your notes first. Adding only identifying details still gives you the blank sheet. A filled copy has a compact recording-point and topic table, followed by the summaries, people and places, and follow-up fields you actually wrote. Empty detail fields are omitted.

Will it play a recording, create timestamps or transcribe an interview?

No. There is no recording, audio or video upload, player, transcription or AI. Listen in your separate player and enter your own text here. Time labels are free text: they are not checked, calculated, sorted or linked to playback. Segments stay in the order you add them.

What if I have only a time label or an uncertain name?

Every field is optional. A segment with any written field is included, even without a topic. Filled copies retain the original segment numbers and skip untouched segments. Describe uncertainty in your own words; this tool does not identify people or verify what was said.

Where is my interview log saved?

Only in this page’s memory. Your notes are not uploaded or autosaved; refreshing or closing clears them. Download text or print before leaving. Saved TXT and PDF copies cannot be reopened here for editing. A recording reference is text only: this page does not open or fetch it. This log is not a consent form or a grant of permission to share a recording.

How do I clear a segment or print a longer log?

Clear this segment asks first. Undo restores it until you write new text in that same segment or close the page; writing in another segment or the identifying fields keeps Undo available. Print or save PDF opens your browser’s dialog. Choose Letter or A4 and check the preview. Browser-menu printing works while editing. Long notes may continue onto additional pages without forcing every segment onto a new one.

Write a scene in your own voice

Save your log first. MemoirWell’s separate guided interview can help develop your own memory into an AI-assisted draft chapter to check and edit. It does not import this log or your recording.

Start a free first chapter

Download or print your log before leaving this page.