The first iteration of the wicked problem OHD_MMP_0156
The eighth property of wicked problems is: “every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another problem.”1 My theory is that the limited reuse of oral history is a symptom of the limited maintenance of access to oral history. Or at least the maintenance of oral history access is one of the contributing factors to the limited reuse of oral histories. Similarly, the limited maintenance of access to oral history is the symptom of a variety of other wicked problems. However, the formulation of each version of the wicked problem of maintaining access to oral history is “essentially unique.”2 This was evident in the different organisations I did a placement with.
For example, while The British Library can trace its roots to the middle of the eighteenth century, and the National Trust has its origins at the end of the nineteenth century, Archives at NCBS in Bangalore, India only celebrated its fourth birthday while I was there on placement in 2023. The older institutions had more deep rooted traditions, customs, and habits which make it hard to acclimatise to the digital era. Archives at NCBS was however born in the digital era and therefore is less hampered than the older institutions by customs and pre existing standards. From a different perspective The British Library and Archives at NCBS are similar because they are both archives which have an oral history collection, while the National Trust is a heritage charity which collects oral history but deposits it with the British Library. In addition each organisation has a different funding streams and staffing set-up all off which will, as I discuss later, contribute to how the access to oral history can be maintained. And if we look at the unique situation of Seaton Delaval Hall we get a whole different picture due to the Hall being a tourist attraction, and therefore the staff also need to manage: a cafe, toilets, a garden, a shop, a carpark, and all the volunteers. I recognise that The British Library can also be considered a tourist attraction but unlike the Hall where sometimes the General Manager and the Collections staff are pointing visitors to the correct parking spots, the Library has particular staff to carry out these jobs.
Although each of these situations differ in their formulation of the wicked problem of maintaining access to oral histories, there are two areas which occurred throughout – the maintenance of the expectations of access and the barriers to maintenance. They are not the only areas that contribute to the wicked problem of maintaining access to oral histories as is evident in two similar talks I gave, where I explained the different areas of the system that grants access to oral histories.3 The one was presented in the summer of 2023 and the other was presented in the spring of 2024. I decided to drop ‘value’ from this graphic because value was something that was very specific to my work with the National Trust, due to their collection policy not including oral histories or any other type of intangible heritage. However what remained were the two areas – the maintenance of the expectations of access and the barriers to maintenance – which I believe can work as general starting points to push people to consider the maintenance of oral history more.
This collection of material shows how our expectations of access have evolved over time due to advancing technology and how this evolution has caused both opportunities and problems for oral history.
This collection explores the barriers to maintenance and how the ability to maintain is continuously hindered by a variety of factors, such as limited time and money, and third parties controlling the autonomy over maintenance.
Horst Rittel, and Melvin Webber, “Dilemmas in a general theory of planning” in Policy sciences, 4(2), (1973), p. 165. ↩︎
Horst Rittel, and Melvin Webber, “Dilemmas in a general theory of planning” in Policy sciences, 4(2), (1973), p. 164. ↩︎
