The number and variety of uses to which oral history materials are suited have been frequently described (some of them are set out in Chapter 2). Several of these applications have been more suggested than realised, however, and even the most widely recognised use - as source material for books and articles - has been on a relatively small scale. As measured by public demand and exploitation tapes and transcripts are not widely acknowledged as archive materials and still remain a comparatively novel record form.
Collecting centres are generally more preoccupied with acquisition than with use. The potential of the materials they hold is often left to others to recognise and exploit, while librarians and archivists perform more passive roles. This may be a satisfactory arrangement for traditional and established reference collections. However, printed, documentary, photographic, film and artistic records have established their market places; oral history and other sound recordings have only been somewhat lightly and tentatively employed. The costly process of oral history creation, in addition to the novelty of the resultant products, makes it politic and necessary for administrators of these materials to be more vigorous in the exploitation of their resources than is typical of institutional collectors. Other considerations apart, future funding of their recording programmes may well depend on showing a dividend which is commensurate to the investment they involve.
At the institution on whose experience this publication is based, most of the identified uses for oral history materials have been tried with varying degrees of success. This has involved not simply permitting these uses but in several cases actually initiating them. It has seemed to be the case that, to achieve wide application of an oral history archive, many of the potential uses may have to be pioneered by the archive itself before they are imitated. Certainly where clients exist they must be informed and encouraged; when potential users can be identified, they have to be educated; and very likely - since the use of tapes and transcripts may still be in its infancy - new markets await creation.
This final section of An Archive Approach to Oral History therefore, summarises the practical experience of one collecting centre, in some areas for the application and dissemination of recordings and transcripts.
In many countries where the radio medium is confined mainly to the dissemination of news and music, there will probably be no place for oral history in broadcasting. Where a broadcasting service exists whose output includes educational and cultural programmes of a fairly serious nature, then there is an application for oral history recordings in radio programming. There is a minimum technical standard which has to be achieved for this purpose, but the level is not unrealistically exacting for oral historians who have paid attention to basic recording skills (see Chapter 5).
Radio compilation is closely analogous to historical method. It involves research, selection and composition. These, being already acquired skills of the historian, do not require a great deal of adaptation in preparing radio broadcasts. Any themes selected with broadcasting in mind have to be fairly strong and bald if they are to be effective. The medium does not lend itself to the qualified or microsmic statements which historians are accustomed to make. Apart from anything else, the maximum length of radio programmes - usually forty five minutes - only permits the communication of historical generalisation. For this reason one anecdote may be more useful for broadcasting purposes than the most authoritatively refined but unillustrated comment.
While some of the characteristics of radio programming may fail to satisfy the historian, the medium offers its own interesting compensations. Perhaps the most outstanding of these is the satisfaction of publishing oral history in the form in which it is collected. This opportunity, more than any other application, does focus attention on the limitations of the transcript. It is clear that the conversion of the spoken word into a documentary form does have limitations. Attitudes, emotions, prejudices and personalities become flattened and are converted into a uni-dimensional approximation of what the informant tried to convey. The mosaic of information which the oral history recording represents, when used by the historian and the radio producer, makes radio programming an exciting application because it provides an opportunity to communicate those elements of oral history which cannot be put onto paper.
The main obstacle to achieving radio publication lies in the difficulty of persuading broadcasters to interest themselves in the oral history archive as a source of raw material. Several things militate against this. The time involved in listening, identifying potential themes, and selecting suitable material is perhaps the biggest handicap for producers who work to tight journalistic deadlines. Additionally, broadcasters usually prefer to do their own interviewing with a specific programme purpose in mind, than to edit material which others have collected for different reasons. It is likely, however, that broadcasting attitudes to oral history collections will change once the informants required for radio programmes are known only to 'survive' in an archival or library repository.
For so long as broadcasters do not naturally turn to oral history collections for programme purposes, a not inconsiderable effort is required on the part of the collecting centre to encourage this kind of use. Developed themes may have to be proposed and supported by suitable recordings before a potential radio programme will be taken up by a producer. Is the application worth this amount of effort? If the recordings are original and important then obviously they deserve as large an audience as can be reached. Secondly, broadcasting can provide a major and free source of publicity which will stimulate public use of the archive collection itself. Finally, initiatives in this field produce dividends in the longer term as broadcasters themselves become more familiar with oral history resources.1
Commercial audio publications based on spoken word recordings have not been particularly numerous or successful. The notable exceptions have mostly used recordings of eminent speakers dealing contemporarily with great events.1 This application for oral history recordings, like that of radio broadcasting, has not been much developed. There are, however, some reasons for believing that energetic pioneering by the collecting centres themselves may be justified, at least in the educational field.
A process which has been concurrent with developments in oral history, is the changing attitudes of educationists to the schools' history syllabus. Increasingly, the trend in modern history teaching has been to emphasise less the records of governments, international disputes and great leaders, and to concentrate more on social change and the history of people with whom most of us can more directly associate.
For many aspects of history teaching the traditional reliance on books will undoubtedly continue. In the Imperial War Museum's field of study, for example, there is no shortage of teaching materials relating to the politics, strategy and military tactics of the First World War. What is more difficult to obtain from and communicate through printed sources, is the way in which the war affected the day to day lives of ordinary people at that time. What did the soldier eat at the front and how was the food issued and prepared? What personal health and hygiene problems were created by the acute and persistent physical discomforts of life in the trenches? What was it really like to be weighed down by the enormous loads which footsoldiers had to carry on their backs and in their hands, and how did these burdens affect their ability to carry out the tasks which were set for them?
Answers to questions of this kind are basic components of history and it is this quality of information in which oral history recordings are particularly rich. For example:
'We had this BF wireless set No 1. This was about the size of a table sewing machine but very much heavier. It had a leather strap over the top for carrying. It was made of teak, ebonite and brass; it weighed a ton. To get the signals going we had to have a big accumulator. It was big, heavy and very awkward to carry. So that was two things that were terrible awkward to carry. There was a roll of brass mat or it might have been copper -that was an earth mat. That as 1 remember it was about thirty yards long. Then we had two sets of tubular masts. They were eighteen feet masts; six lengths of three feet. And aerial wire; 1 think that ran to about sixty yards -but where we were going to put sixty yards of aerial wire in the trenches, 1 don't know. Then we had stanchions. We had loads and loads of dry cells for operating the receiver. We had ropes. Mallet of course and pegs.
'I think that was the entire wireless equipment but our own personal equipment was terrible because we were in what was called "battle order". Which meant that we had our overcoats on; we had a blanket rolled and twisted over our shoulder; we wore bandoliers with sixty rounds; we had a rifle on our back; we had a gas mask on the front; we had iron rations in a pocket in the tunic and we had first-aid kit in our pockets.
'So one way and other it was terrible difficult to move with all the stuff, particularly when the officer assembled us and said "Now right, Neyland and Sellers you're the operators, you’ll take this and that". We had four infantry men and they were all clobbered up with similar battle order and they found it difficult to get a roll of wire or whatever it was under their arms.
'We started off as well as we could to giving an even share but during the trip across No Man's Land, into shell holes and out of them, down into trenches and up the other side, these infantry chaps - they were quite boys, they were only eighteen years of age and some of them were crying - they had to be relieved of their loads, you see. And it was hard going because in addition to carrying these loads through mud-filled shell holes and taking cover -such as it was - whenever we could, because there was shrapnel falling above our heads all the time; so that although we started off with the best of good will in the world by the time we finished some of us were carrying more than our allotted weight of stuff while others could hardly carry themselves across'. 2
Not only is the subject content of many oral history recording projects relevant to current teaching needs but their medium of recorded sound offers practical teaching benefits. Through the immediate quality of the spoken word, the common experience is most effectively highlighted. With a short tape a wealth of experience and understanding can be conveyed, which the teacher himself would take longer to communicate second hand and very much less effectively.
Academic historians - for all their subject expertise - may not, however, be sufficiently sensitive to current curriculum needs and the practical problems of the classroom to produce the most relevant audio teaching aids from their archive collections. For its part the collecting centre is seldom equipped or qualified in the fields of marketing and distribution (or able to accept the financial risk involved in publishing) to make a success of this kind of venture. Audio-visual publications are, however, being increasingly carried by major educational publishers, and cooperation with such commercial organisations is probably the safest and most effective way to develop the use of oral history materials in this field. Recent experience suggests that educational publishers are alive to the teaching potential of archive collections and if current experiments3 prove to be commercially viable the way may be opened to substantial use of oral history in the classroom.
Although museum displays are often extremely accurate representations of previous life and culture, one of the most striking features of many exhibitions is that they rely on static, visual materials for their effect. No matter how imaginatively the artefacts and other objects are used, exhibitions can only be an approximation of history. It would be an overstatement to claim that oral history recordings bridge the gap between representation and reality, but they can bring museum displays one step closer to this end. They achieve this closer approximation to historical reality by the dramatic 'association of physical objects with people who made them meaningful. The recording can therefore provide a novel dimension and is an effective addition to the exhibition designer's range of tools. Display tapes, in common with teaching tapes, require precision and brevity of statement. They are used most effectively when they combine a variety of speakers and a range of subject content in short and pithy juxtaposition.
As an example of exhibition use, there was a section of the Imperial War Museum's galleries dealing with the outbreak of the First World War, in which a life size reproduction of an army recruiting office was erected. This contained authentic examples of military and civilian dress, details of enlistment procedures, and recruiting posters -including the very famous one of Lord Kitchener, whose face and finger so effectively summoned men to volunteer with the caption "Your Country Needs You". On its own, this group conveyed only a little of the contemporary patriotism and enthusiasm for the war; the ingenious lengths to which many civilians went in order to join the country's armed forces; and the hasty, ill-prepared and almost amateur endeavours by which the large British volunteer army was eventually put into the field. In association with this display the following tape was incorporated which does capture in some degree the mood of the period and gives background and depth to what is being displayed:
'These local service battalions were all Kitchener's Army men. And that poster - "Your King and Country Needs You" -whichever angle you looked at it from, it was pointing at you. When you approached it, when you got past it, if you turned around and looked at it, he was still pointing at you.1
‘I'd left the office which was in Southampton Row, went along to Armoury House, which was at City Road trying to enlist at the time. So I went right up to the front and into the gates where I was met by a Sergeant-Major at a desk. And the Sergeant said "Are you willing to join?" I said "Yes Sir". He said "How old are you?" I said "I'm eighteen and one month". He said "Do you mean nineteen and one month?" So I thought a moment. I said "Yes sir". He said "Righto, well sign here please.2
'I went to the recruiting office at Harlesden and when I confronted the recruiting officer he said that I was too young, although I'd said that I was eighteen years of age. He said "Well I think you're too young son". He said "You come back. Come back in another year or so". I returned home. I never said anything to my parents and I picked up my bowler hat -which my mother had bought me and which was only taken in to wear on Sundays - and I donned that thinking it would make me look older. And I presented myself to the recruiting office again. This times there was no queries and I was accepted.'3
'August the 17th 1914 was the day I joined up. I received the King's Shilling at Francis Street, Woolwich and from there I was given a railway warrant to go to Hounslow. I got out of the station and enquired the way to the Royal Fusiliers' Barracks and went there; walked through the gate; and for the first time in my life I found there was a guard room just inside the gate. And the Sergeant very quickly said "And where do you think you're going?" I said "I've come to join the Royal Fusiliers."4
'Really we did very little training because there were too many people there. I don't know how many there were but it must have run into thousands. They equipped us as far as clothing went -with much difficulty. Many of us had to sleep out in the grounds outside the barracks; the rest on the floor in the barrack rooms; no beds or anything like that. There was about one plate and one mug for probably twenty people -we had to buy our own if we could. There was absolutely no arrangement really made at all -typically English!5
Like several other applications which are mentioned in this section, lack of knowledge or professional prejudice can militate against the use of oral history material in displays. Exhibition designers are rather reluctant to rely on playback machines which are liable to break down and thereby, if only temporarily, leave a gap in their creations. There are some grounds for their reservations. Continuous playback, which is often required, puts a considerable workload on audio equipment which has usually been adapted for exhibition purposes rather than designed for it. Localising the sound reproduction also presents problems. If the exhibition needs a standard audio level throughout the display area, this may require careful positioning of many loudspeakers at different points and heights and a fairly elaborate arrangement of equipment and wiring that takes careful planning and craftsmanship to conceal. However, despite these practical problems there are many examples to be seen 6 (and heard) of exhibitions which are enhanced by the complementary use of recordings with other display materials.
The applications described above are all concerned with general forms of record dissemination. Although the widest use of the archive may be encouraged by such forms of propagation, the main task of collecting centres is to serve the needs of individual users.
In preparing a collection of oral history recordings for public access, the cassette format offers the audio reference medium best suited to the needs of the collecting institution and its users. Cassettes provide the cheapest format on which to hold recorded sound. They also give good security against damage which can be caused by inexperienced handling, as compared with the alternative open reel tape. To the advantages of economy and security can be added convenience and ease of use; cassettes and related playback equipment are more or less fool proof and listeners can be left to their own devices with relative impunity. Supervision and servicing of visitors by archive staff is, therefore, kept to a minimum.
Obviously a much more valuable service can be provided when copies of archive recordings can be made available outside the archive, than if the tapes can only be heard on the premises of the collecting centre. As microreproduction, in the form of film and fiche, has greatly facilitated the dissemination of printed and documentary records, the cassette offers similar advantages of miniaturisation and economy for audio sources. To take maximum advantage of recent developments in tape technology, the standardisation of archive units is recommended. That is to say that the collecting centre should fix a standard format for holding all of its recorded interviews (30 minutes is a convenient unit for reel or cassette recording and copying) and then ensure that any subsequent copies made for general working or public reference purposes are identical in length and content to the archive master. The administrative problems of selecting and costing material are greatly eased when the copies to be made are of a uniform length. This kind of standardisation also makes the copying process technically very much more straightforward, rapid and economic. High speed transfer equipment can produce copy tapes in a fraction of the actual running time of an item, provided the archive material is catalogued and held in a standard form that makes it unnecessary for technical staff to have to listen to the recordings which are being copied.
There is one dilemma for collecting centres which are concerned to meet the needs of every user, but yet are dealing with requests that are individual and may be unique. A teacher, for example, may want a copy tape which would involve selecting and copying short extracts from a great many reels, to produce a recording specially designed to meet his particular need. Even if such a customer can afford to pay the realistic cost of providing this kind of edited tape, the archive itself may not be able to afford the time necessary to prepare it.
The policy of the sound archive on which this publication is based is to provide only copies of whole reels. These reels are standard fifteen or thirty minute units, and the availability only of tapes limited to these running times seems to be generally acceptable to most users. The alternative, of providing short extracts, would have to be accompanied by a price supplement set at least 50% above the cost of a comparable length of material copied straight as complete units. This differential reflects the very much more labour intensive nature of selective copying.
A transcript copying service is so similar to documentary and printed photocopying services that it merits no special consideration, except in the context of which of the two oral history formats users will most commonly seek. The experience of a general sound archive, serving a wide variety of users, is that the recordings are rather more frequently used than the transcripts. But given the predilections of a sound archive, committed to its particular medium, that is perhaps to be expected. As a contribution to the omnipresent oral history debate about the status and use of transcripts as against recordings, this experience cannot be conclusive. What can be said with certainty, and proven by users' requisition forms, is that there is a significant demand for well recorded and organised tapes as well as for their typed facsimiles.
In providing an effective service for researchers, and -in the long term - for reducing the demand which the administration of such services makes on staff time, the publication of catalogues for circulation and use outside the collecting centre generally repays the cost of their preparation. An institution which is entirely dependent on in-house finding aids to provide subject access to its collection, will only be ab1c to make its materials available to users who are able to visit the repository. This obviously imposes a severe limitation on the potential use of the collection.
While the catalogues may be costly in staff time to prepare, developing them closely along the lines of the internal catalogue format can minimise the amount of rewriting or editing work involved. Once available they provide a convenient means for dealing with many internal user requests; they greatly limit the need to make separate 1ists, to deal with individual enquiries; they enable the researcher to establish whether the centre holds material relevant to his interests and would therefore be worth visiting; if a lending or sales service is offered, they can facilitate requisition or purchase without the need to visit; and -if they bring together all material on a particular subject -they provide a form of functional classification of the collection that can reduce indexing burdens within the archive.
Access and use are the life blood of collecting institutions. They represent the ends to which the processes described in the preceding chapters of this publication should be directed. It is therefore appropriate that An Archive Approach to Oral History concludes at such a point.