Access to Oral History Content in South Africa: Metadata Skills Matter

Metadata skills are required when organizing oral history content. Often, oral history content is not organized through archival principles to ensure ease of access. This qualitative study focused on metadata skills to facilitate access to oral history content in South Africa. Qualitative data were collected using document analysis and interviews with archivists to determine the content of the education and training programs with special reference to oral history content. The collected data was analyzed using the thematic analysis method. The study reveals that, although oral history content is an integral part of archival collections, education and training of oral history content is often offered separate from archival and record programs. The study recommended the inclusion of oral history content management in the archival science curriculum. It also proposes guidelines to inform education and training of metadata and metadata standards and/or schema.