Personas are a user-centered design tool adopted by the Oral History Association's Metadata Task Force to help anyone working with oral histories to determine what information they would like to capture and preserve about their interviews. A persona is a profile of a particular person that provides context to the decisions they make by bringing together important information about their needs, available resources and interests. In this persona-building activity, you will crystallize a snapshot of your context that will help you determine what metadata will be most important for you to capture and preserve for your interviews. At the end of this eight question survey, you will be able to download a comprehensive list of metadata elements that you can selectively adopt, based on the values and needs you've established in your persona.

Let's get started! This should take about 20 minutes to complete.