The Archive currently houses about 3500 audiotapes, supporting field notes, videotapes, photographs and slides. The recorded discussions of different folk arts, remedies, beliefs, and practices, life stories and anecdotes, poems and songs, provide an oral history of the traditional and changing ways of life in New England. The materials are stored in a controlled environment to provide for their maximum protection. Temperature and humidity, light and dust are regulated to accomplish the safest long-term storage for these irreplaceable materials. Access to the materials is provided with copies of recordings and their transcripts.
Playback equipment allows visitors to listen to the recordings.
As in any archival collection, not all materials are available to the public. There are people who prefer to remain private, and there are some restrictions on the use of materials. Admittance to the archives is provided by using a computerized database program to perform searches by name, location, date or a general topic. RealPlayer Basic is a Free Download, and should be adequately sufficient to listen to all streaming media available within this archive search utility. Be sure to download the FREE basic version, otherwise you will be asked to pay the registration fee.