It is a resource for researchers in the development of educational or community history and practices. Creating a formal archives program can provide a focus for school and community relations while increasing public awareness of the school's importance to the community. It can preserves the community's identity and while nourishing the school's associations with the community. Started - Decisions A bit of planning at the beginning can save major headaches down the road. Several questions should be considered.
Oral histories can be an important history-gathering activity and can give depth to the program.
But such programs are labor intensive. In addition to making the recordings, researchers need to do background research, develop questions, create transcripts or indexes after the interviews, and make arrangements for preservation and public access to the collection. When an archives is established, the intent should be to keep the collection forever. It becomes part of the formal infrastructure of the institution, and it should be regulated by careful policies. Issues as such privacy and copyright are governed by federal and state rules and should be addressed at the beginning of forming the archives.