The Significance of Individual Efforts in Preserving Oral Heritage: The Archive of Dr. Salem Aqeel Muqaybil as a Model

Abstract

 Oral heritage is a crucial source of information and a form of legacy that must be preserved through scientific and systematic methods. Consequently, numerous individuals dedicated to documenting oral heritage have emerged. They rely on their personal initiatives and limited resources. From this standpoint, this study aims to identify effective solutions to address the challenges of the insufficient governance and support often encountered by individual efforts in documenting oral history. The ultimate goal is to safeguard this national heritage and develop mechanisms for its accessibility to users, thus achieving the overarching objective of its care and preservation. The study aims to highlight the oral heritage collection of Dr. Salem Aqeel Muqaybil in the Sultanate of Oman, which he personally compiled using available resources. The study employed a qualitative methodology to analyze and examine the nature and contents of Dr. Muqaybil’s oral heritage archive. The researcher conducted a semi-structured interview with Dr. Muqaybil, the collector of the oral heritage archive, to identify the challenges he encountered during the collection and recording process, as well as to explore his future plans for utilizing and making the archive accessible to beneficiaries. The findings revealed that Dr. Muqaybil’s collection comprises more than 400 hours of audio recordings documenting pivotal events in modern Omani history, making it a rich source for researchers and historians across various disciplines. Furthermore, the study demonstrated the evolution of documentation tools, from primitive devices, such as cassette recorders, to the use of smartphones, reflecting the potential of integrating modern technology into individual documentation projects. This research paper was presented at the Annual Conference of the Egyptian Library, Information, and Archives Association (ELA), in collaboration with the General Authority for Cultural Palaces, under the title: “Information Institutions, the Preservation of Documentary and Oral Heritage, and its Accessibility in Light of Digital Transformations,” held on 24–25 June 2025.