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ORAL HISTORY

Copyright and Release Forms

Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre

Church Lane, Toddington, Cheltenham, GLOS. GL 54 5DQ United Kingdom
Phone/Fax: +44 (0) 1242 620125 Email: craig@pettarchiv.org.uk

Your recording, the transcript, confidentiality and copyright

Thank you very much for allowing the Archive to hold a copy of your recording.

Recordings made by or on behalf of the Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive and Study Centre, or which have been deposited here by someone else, are regarded and treated by us as invaluable and irreplaceable historical documents. While we would like to make them available to students and researchers, no one will have access to your recording and its transcript unless or until you agree to it. Letting us know your wishes is the purpose of the 'release' (or perhaps 'don't release') form, which is attached.

What is the purpose of the transcript?

The first purpose of the master transcript is to be an accurate, one-to-one record of what is actually on the recording. This is to protect you, so that you can not only see what you said, but how it looks on paper. It is also to protect us, because it is important to ensure that when and if we come to use the recording for any reason we are not surprised by what we find there.

Having said that, there may be all sorts of reasons why you would prefer a second, edited version of the transcript to be made. You might want to take out confidential material, or change names to protect identities, or simply re-write parts of it so it reads better or reflects more accurately what you were trying to say.

The first step is to look carefully at the draft transcript, perhaps while listening to the recording (a copy of which should also have been sent to you), and to mark up any mistakes which you find in the transcription itself - any names, or phrases, or even whole sentences which we may have misheard. If we are uncertain about something we will usually indicate this by placing it inside square brackets, and if the square brackets are empty - like this [ ] - it means we simply haven't been able to decide what is being said on the recording. Any help you can give will be very gratefully included. Return your corrected draft transcript to us. We will make the corrections, and send a copy of the corrected master transcript back to you.

If you would like to make other kinds of changes, simply mark up the draft transcript with your instructions - or, alternatively, we can always send you a digital copy. In any event, return the marked up or revised draft to us. We will incorporate the changes and produce a revised/edited version, and send a copy of this to you.

Copyright

Any time you make a recording, the copyright in what you say belongs to you, whether it is on the tape or on the transcript, and it can not be copied or published without your permission. We make a copy for you, and a preservation copy (in case anything should happen to the original recording or transcript), but we can not and will not make copies available to anyone else or for any other purpose without your permission. It is very important to us - to protect you and to protect ourselves - to have your clear instructions on this, and we would therefore be very grateful if you could fill in and return the accompanying release form.

You can, of course, assign your copyright to someone else. If you choose to do this, please make sure that we know who this is, and how we may get in contact with them, so that if a query does arise over the years we will know whom to contact.

You could choose to assign copyright to the Archive and Study Centre. In the long run - 30, 50, a hundred years - it is obviously easier for the Archive and Study Centre if it either holds the copyright or has your explicit permission to act on your behalf if and when someone asks to copy or publish something of what you have said. What is vital, however, is that we know what your wishes are, and to whom we should refer should a query arise.

We are a non-profit making undertaking, and while we might make charges to cover the costs of copying or of processing materials, should the question of an added fee or payment for the use of your materials arise - say from a broadcaster - we would make every effort to contact you and to ensure that this fee was paid to you or to your nominee.

Confidentiality

Neither your recording nor your transcript will be made available to any other person for any reason without your permission, as indicated on the release form.

If you feel that what you have said on the tape as a whole is particularly confidential you might wish to tell us to "close" the tape and the transcript altogether. This means that they will not be made available to anyone else for any reason for the length of time you specify, which might typically be 25 or 50 years or so. This is a very radical step, which very much restricts the impact and usefulness of your contribution, so that if you feel the material is extremely sensitive you might want to consider other options.

You could, for example, require the material to be made anonymous, or require a researcher to have your written permission - agreeing to written and signed conditions - before being allowed to read the transcript or listen to the recording. You might wish to have certain names changed, so that a patient or client, for example, can not be identified. There might be specific episodes or whole incidents which you might wish removed from the tape or transcript before it is in any way made available to the public. There are many ways you and the people about whom you may speak can be protected, and you can specify these on the release form or - if you have any questions - please feel free to get in touch.

With very many thanks,

Dr. Craig Fees
Archivist

Release Form

To be filled in and signed by the interviewee, who retains one copy and sends one copy to the Archive and Study Centre.

The Planned Environment Therapy Trust Archive has my permission to make copies of the audio/video recordings and transcripts indicated above, and to make these copies available at its discretion (Please circle either YES or NO):

With the following provisions and restrictions:

COPYRIGHT

If you are retaining copyright and do not wish the Archive to act as agent on your behalf, simply circle each "NO" or cross this section out.

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This page authored by: Craig Fees