- Stanford students, faculty, and staff have unlimited on-campus and limited remote access to the Visual History Archive.
- PC users: The Archive is accessible using only Internet Explorer (v. 6 or later), and requires Windows Media Player (v. 7 or later; download here). Note that the Firefox browser is not currently supported.
- Mac users: Access requires some configuration for use with Safari. Please follow these instructions (pdf; still to be tested).
- A one-time registration is required.
- Because of the large file sizes of these video testimonies, users often have to wait for a requested file to become available. The waiting period is often less than an hour, but may be up to 48 hours.
Getting Started: More Details
Technical Requirements
Please note: You must be on the Stanford campus
in order to search and view the testimonies on the Visual History Archive. A wireless connection
is usually not adequate.
PC Requirements
Macintosh Requirements
- OS X 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4 (not compatible with OS X 10.5)
- Safari 1.1 or later
- xquicktime plug-in (see instructions)
- QuickTime 6.5 or later
- G4 or G5 processor, or Intel processor
- 256 MB (or more) memory
Macintosh users will need to follow these additional instructions in
order to view the testimonies.
Initial VHA Searching
To begin searching you will need to:
- Go to the Archive Website
- Register : create a username and password
that you will use to log on to the archive;
- Choose either Quick Search one of the three Advanced
Search modes:
• Quick Search . Search for a
word that may appear as a personal name, an indexing keyword (or a synonym), or an interview code.
• People Search . Search for a
specific person by first and/or last name.
• Biographical Search by Experience Group .
Search for testimonies of people within nine specific experience groups
(i.e. Jewish Survivors, War Crimes Trials Participants, etc.).
• Global Keywords Search . Search
for segments of video testimonies that discuss specific topics, using
more than 30,000 geographic and experiential keywords. This search mode
is particularly useful for narrowing a large set of testimonies that
you previously saved into a particular subset of interest.
To save a search you will need to:
- Select the save to project button.
This will bring you to the Projects page,
where you must choose between the following two options:
- Saving your search results to a new project,
that you will be asked to name, or
- Saving your search results to an existing project,
which will add the testimonies to an existing project file, not replace
that file.
To begin a new search you will need to:
- Select the new search button on the bottom
left corner of the search screen, or
- Select the Search tab from the
archive menu across the top of the screen.
Ordering a Video Testimony
Video segments may take up to 48 hours to access.
When your search results in a video segment that is “Viewable w/i 48 Hrs.,” you will see the following message on the left side of your screen:
Depending on traffic, downloading the video for this testimony will take up to 48 hours. To download, click here. You may continue searching while the video is downloading. Check back later for access.
Select click here to request that the testimony be downloaded from the Foundation's central digital video storage location to the local Stanford University cache. You will be notified by email, at the email address you provided at registration, once the segment is available for you to access.
At present, most videos requested in this fashion are available in well under an hour; however, this download time may be longer depending on user demand or other network traffic.
Subsequent VHA Searching
To perform subsequent searches once you have logged off the archive,
you will need to:
- Log on : enter the username and password
that you created at registration, and
- Choose Quick Search or one of the three Advanced Search modes
to begin a new search, or
- Choose Projects to view previously saved
searches, or
- Choose Projects to search within a previously
saved search.
VHA Search Tips
F11 button improves view.
Select the F11 button to have the VHA completely fill your monitor screen.
Navigation buttons.
Use the light blue buttons on the bottom of the screen to move through
your search: new search, back, reset, next, enter, and save to search.
Use the tabs provided on the top of the screen to navigate the archive:
About the Shoah Foundation, Registration, Search, Search History,
Projects, Site Map, Help, or Feedback.
Search History provided.
When searching, a Search History section
on the left side of the screen indicates the number of testimonies currently
resulting from your search. You can make use of this information to guide
your search decisions, to further narrow your search if a large number
of testimonies appear, or to go back and broaden your search if too few
testimonies have resulted from your query.
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