The Master's Voice: Digitizing and Preserving Oral Histories of Architects

Oral histories play a unique role in animating the papers, drawings, blueprints and other artifacts that make up architec tural collections. There is no substitute for hearing architects explain, in their own words and voices, their influences, creative processes, client relationships, and favorite projects. This article considers the digitization and preservation of oral histories recorded on magnetic media, based on the assumption that the majority of such histories held in collections must be migrated to a different format. Recognizing that standards are just now being set, and that, to date, there have been no definitive standards regarding tape format, the creation of checksums,1 or the storage of high resolution audio, no one solution is proposed; rather, possible and probable solutions that may stem what Jim Lindner has called the "tidal wave at our shores" are outlined. These