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Oral Histories--Lack of Releases



Our archives facility has received, over the years, a number
of oral history tapes, many without formal releases, but which
have been done by faculty or students under grant projects
or other "creative activities."   My normal policy is to allow
access to these tapes on the premises.

However I now have requests from an organization that
wishes to transcribe a group of tapes and use the transcrip-
tions in their work.   To give an anonymous but similar
example, say we have a group of taped interviews of
people living on a certain street.   There are no releases
for these tapes.  Twenty years after the tapes were done
a company wants to have the tapes transcribed and the
transcriptions used in its supporting documentation to the
county commission, about the history of the street, to support
its redevelopment plan for the area.   The firm is willing to
provide the transcriptions to our archives so we'll end up with
tapes and transcriptions.

My concern is the legal and ethical issues of these interviews
without formal agreements.   Many of the original narrators are
gone.   And one of the people with the "redevelopment firm" is
one of the 'students' who helped with the interviewing twenty
years ago.    Any ideas?

Dean
Dean DeBolt
University Librarian
Special Collections and West Florida Archives
John C. Pace Library
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL  32514-5750
Tele:  850-474-2213;   Fax:  850-474-3338

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