Glossary of Terms

This glossary defines key terms and concepts used throughout the Oral History as Data documentation.

A

Alt Text (Alternative Text)
Descriptive text for images that displays when images can’t be loaded and is read by screen readers. Essential for accessibility. Example: alt="Portrait of John Smith from 1975".

B

Baseurl
The URL path where your site is hosted, used in _config.yml. For GitHub Pages, this is usually /repository-name. Example: If your site is at username.github.io/my-project/, the baseurl is /my-project.
Bootstrap
A CSS framework used by CollectionBuilder and OHD to provide responsive design and pre-built components. Bootstrap 5 is the current version used.
Browse Page
A page that displays all items in your collection in a grid or list view, allowing users to filter and search through the collection.

C

Child Object
In a compound object structure, a child object is a related item (photo, document, artifact) that appears below a parent transcript. Connected via parentid field.
CollectionBuilder
The open-source framework that Oral History as Data is built upon. CollectionBuilder creates digital collection sites from CSV metadata.
CollectionBuilder-CSV
The specific version of CollectionBuilder that uses CSV files for metadata, which OHD extends with transcript-specific features.
Commit
In Git, saving changes to your repository with a descriptive message. Changes must be committed before they can be pushed to GitHub.
Compound Object
A collection item that consists of multiple related components, such as an interview transcript with associated photographs. In OHD, the interview transcript is the parent and related items are children.
CSV (Comma-Separated Values)
A plain text file format that stores tabular data. Used in OHD for metadata, transcript content, and configuration. Can be created in Excel or Google Sheets.

D

Display Template
A field in your metadata that determines how an item is displayed. For oral history interviews, use display_template: transcript. Other values include image, pdf, video, audio.

F

Featured Image
An image used for the home page background or to represent an item in browse views. Set in _data/theme.yml or metadata fields (image_small, image_thumb).
Filters.csv
A CSV file located at _data/filters.csv that defines your tag vocabulary (coding scheme). Contains two columns: tag and description. Tags from this file are used to code and visualize transcript segments.
Front Matter
YAML-formatted metadata at the top of a markdown file, enclosed by three dashes (---). Controls page settings like title, layout, and navigation order.

G

GitHub
A web platform for hosting and collaborating on Git repositories. OHD projects are typically hosted on GitHub.
GitHub Actions
An automation service that builds and deploys your OHD site. The preferred method for GitHub Pages publishing, allowing custom Jekyll plugins.
GitHub Pages
Free web hosting service provided by GitHub that publishes static websites directly from a repository. Perfect for OHD collections.
Git
Version control software that tracks changes to files. GitHub is built on Git.

H

Hex Code
A six-character color code used in web design, starting with #. Example: #0d6efd for blue. Used in _data/theme.yml for customizing colors.

I

Include
A reusable component in Jekyll, stored in the _includes/ directory. OHD uses includes for Bootstrap components, figures, and transcript features.
Interviewee
The person being interviewed in an oral history. This is an OHD-specific metadata field.
Interviewer
The person conducting the interview. This is an OHD-specific metadata field.

J

Jekyll
The static site generator that powers OHD and CollectionBuilder. Converts markdown files and data into a complete website. Written in Ruby.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
A data format used by OHD for large transcript collections. Can be generated from CSV files for better performance on the visualization page.

K

Kramdown
The markdown parser used by Jekyll. Supports extended markdown syntax including footnotes and tables.

L

Layout
A template that defines how a page is structured, stored in _layouts/. Common OHD layouts include home-cover, transcript, and lesson-content.
Liquid
A templating language used by Jekyll to generate dynamic content. Uses tags like {% if %} and variables like {{ page.title }}.

M

Markdown
A lightweight markup language used to write content for OHD pages. Converts plain text to formatted HTML. File extension: .md.
Metadata
Structured information about each interview in your collection. Stored in a CSV file in the _data/ directory. Required fields include objectid, title, and display_template.

N

Nav Order
A front matter value that determines the order of pages in your site’s navigation menu. Lower numbers appear first.

O

Object Location
A metadata field containing the URL or path to media files (audio, video, images). For YouTube, use format: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID. For local files: /objects/filename.mp3.
Objectid
A unique identifier for each item in your collection. Must match the transcript CSV filename exactly (without .csv extension). Use lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores only. Example: smith_john.
OHD (Oral History as Data)
A framework for creating digital oral history collections with interactive transcript visualizations, built on top of CollectionBuilder.

P

Parent Object
In a compound object structure, the main interview transcript item. Child objects reference the parent via parentid field matching the parent’s objectid.
Parentid
A metadata field used in compound objects. Links child objects to their parent by matching the parent’s objectid.
Permalink
The permanent URL for a page, set in front matter. Example: permalink: /about/ creates a page at yoursite.com/about/.
Push
In Git, uploading committed changes from your local computer to GitHub. Changes must be pushed to appear on GitHub and trigger site rebuilds.

R

Repository (Repo)
A project folder that contains all your site files, tracked by Git. Hosted on GitHub for OHD projects.
Ruby
The programming language that Jekyll is written in. Must be installed to run Jekyll locally.
RubyGems
A package manager for Ruby that installs Jekyll and its dependencies.

S

SASS/SCSS
CSS preprocessor languages that add features like variables and nesting. OHD uses SCSS files in the _sass/ directory for styling.
Section
A navigation grouping in OHD docs. The first page in a section uses section_id, subsequent pages use section to create dropdown menus.
Speaker
A column in transcript CSV files indicating who is speaking in each segment. Typically the interviewer or interviewee name.
Static Site
A website consisting of fixed HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files (no database required). OHD generates static sites using Jekyll.
Subject
A metadata field containing topics or themes covered in an interview. Multiple subjects separated by semicolons. Example: mining; labor history; safety. Powers subject browse pages and filtering.

T

Tags
Thematic codes applied to transcript segments for visualization and analysis. Tags must be defined in _data/filters.csv and applied in the tags column of transcript CSVs. Multiple tags separated by semicolons.
Template
A starter repository containing all necessary files for an OHD project. Create new projects by clicking “Use this template” on the OHD repository.
Theme.yml
A configuration file at _data/theme.yml that controls display options, colors, and feature toggles for your OHD site.
Timestamp
A column in transcript CSV files indicating when each segment occurs in the audio/video recording. Formats: MM:SS or HH:MM:SS. Enables click-to-navigate functionality.
Transcript CSV
A CSV file containing interview transcript content, stored in _data/transcripts/. Columns include speaker, words, tags, and timestamp. Filename must match metadata objectid.

U

UTF-8
A character encoding that supports all languages and special characters. Always save CSV files with UTF-8 encoding to prevent display issues.
URL Variables
Settings in _config.yml that define your site’s web addresses, including url, baseurl, and source-code.

V

Visualization
The interactive colored bar chart at the top of transcript pages, showing coded segments. Users can filter by tags to focus on specific themes.
Vocabulary
See Filters.csv. The set of tags/codes defined for analyzing transcripts across a collection.

W

Words
A column in transcript CSV files containing the actual spoken text from the interview. The only required column in transcript CSVs.
Workflow
In GitHub Actions, an automated process defined by a YAML file in .github/workflows/. OHD uses a Jekyll workflow to build and deploy sites.

Y

YAML (YAML Ain’t Markup Language)
A human-readable data format used in _config.yml, _data/theme.yml, and front matter. Uses key-value pairs and strict indentation (spaces, not tabs).
Accessibility