The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion, and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher, by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button, may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “FAMILY MOVES TO LONG ISLAND” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 02:20 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “two minutes, twenty seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “FAMILY MOVES TO LONG ISLAND” continues until approximately 04:00, at which point discussion of the next topic (“EISENSCHER FAMILY JOINS WITH OTHERS TO START COOPERATIVE FARM IN NEW JERSEY”) begins.
Notice that in most cases, sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic, For example, the sentence underneath “FAMILY MOVES TO LONG ISLAND” gives further details on what appears on the tape between 02:20 and 04:00.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the con-tent of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However, the abstract will help the researcher to locate distinct topics and discussion among the many minutes of commentary.
