The Potentialities of Oral History as University Archives

Abstract

This article examines the possibilities of oral history resources taking a place among university archives. This would be achieved by means of introducing a program for the collection and use of oral histories gathered from graduates of Tokyo Womenʼs Higher Normal School, the precursor of Ochanomizu University. The article first introduces collection methods, archival processing, access, utilization methods and characteristics as archives of oral history. Secondly, it argues the mutually complementary nature of oral histories of such graduates and university administrative records, and introduces an example of the use of oral histories in lectures on the history of Ochanomizu University. As a result, it is argued that oral history is one of the key components of university archives.