Comma 2002.1-2: James Fogerty, Oral History as a Tool in Archival Development
The author’s work in documenting business and the corporate world has fostered an understanding of oral history as an important and integral part of an archival program and of value in archival development. Oral history is a valuable supplement to written and electronic records that cannot thoroughly document such activities as operations of organization in periods of major alternations, considerations that contributed to key decisions or candid opinions. Oral history also is important in documenting the immigrant community and in compensating for the decreasing percentage of substantive information contained in records. Use of oral history as a documentary tool requires the same care and attention in selection and preservation as paper and electronic records. Oral history has limitations, it deals only with subjects raised by the interviewer and addressed by the narrator, and presents only a snapshot. Expense and disinclination are the reasons oral history is not incorporated in archival programs. It is no more expensive than other parts of archival programs and while archivists are not trained in oral history, they have attributes that made them well suited to administer oral history programs.