(see: oral tradition) With the loss of elders who were willing to preserve and pass along these histories, cultural memories began to vanish.
Spoken word was transcribed, and the eyewitness accounts of those who lived through both significant and everyday events were able to be saved for future generations to study.
Users sign this document before listening to an oral history recording in order to demonstrate that they understand and have agreed to the usage restrictions put in place by the institution.
In order to ensure the preservation of oral histories it is important that all work is properly transcribed and stored on reliable media.
Recordable compact discs are commonly used over magnetic tape for the preservation of oral histories over a long period of time.
CD-R is a successful technology that has proven its reliability over period of time, but it should be viewed with caution for long term storage as the media is easily scratched.
The safest way is to make a "gold master" CD that is not ever checked out for use from the library, and duplicate copies of this for use by people wishing to access it.
Oral histories are often recorded on an assortment of tapes which are ultimately transferred onto computerized, or digitized, formats in order to facilitate their longevity.
[4] With the recent cost decreases in hard disk drives, oral archivists are considering moving many of their popular holdings to permanent storage in a server farm.
Disk drive array cards such as the 3ware 9650SE can field 8TB of redundantly protected data in a standard PC case.
The United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, have all established oral history associations and offer educational classes on the subject.
Archivists, Preservationists and Conservators are in a unique position to appraise the shortcomings of existing archival records and to subsequently know what value can be made by oral history materials.