Add a veteran to the interview list

For every ten Lines sold, a veteran who wouldn’t otherwise have one is interviewed: forty-five minutes with a real person, recorded, and theirs to keep. The recording is prepared and submitted to the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

This is a waiting list, not a booking. We work through it in order, as Lines are sold, and we can’t say how long that takes.

Read this first

A phone call, or a web page

How the interview happens decides whether it can go to the Library of Congress. It is worth knowing before you add anyone.

The interview can be an ordinary phone call

If a phone is what works for them, that is fine, and they can be on the list.

Only an interview on a web page can be submitted to the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress runs the Veterans History Project, a national collection of veterans’ firsthand accounts. An interview can be submitted to it only if it was recorded through a web page, on a computer, tablet or smartphone with a microphone. A phone call carries too little of the sound to meet the Library’s standard, and nothing we do afterwards can put that back.

So to have their interview submitted, the veteran needs to be able to join a web page, on their own or with somebody beside them to set it up. If they can’t, they can still have the interview. It just can’t be submitted.

Submitted is not the same as accepted

Whether an interview is accepted is the Library’s decision, not ours. Vividly is not part of the Library of Congress and is not connected with the VA.

Nothing is signed today

If they want their interview submitted, the veteran signs the Library’s release themselves, before the interview. The box on this form only tells us they’re interested. Their agreement to being recorded is theirs too, given by them at the start of the interview.