The central mission of this PhD evolved into creating an understanding why maintaining access to oral history is so challenging.1 This exploration was framed by Rittel and Webber’s “wicked problem”. As I gained more knowledge through my studies and practice my conception of this particularly wicked problem kept evolving. This section is split into two parts, both of which explore how changes in the society contribute to the wickedness of this problem.
The first iteration of the wicked problem OHD_MMP_0156
The images above are two slides from two different but similar talks I gave where I explained the different areas of the access system to oral histories. The one on the left was presented in the summer of 2023 and the one on the right was presented in the spring of 2024. I decided to drop ‘value’ from this graphic because value was something specific to my work with the National Trust, due to their collection policy not including oral histories or any other type of intangible heritage. The final presentation on the left became the framework for this section of the portfolio which has been split into two.
This collection of material shows how our idea of access has evolved over time due to advancing technology and how this evolution has caused both opportunities and problems for oral history.
