Resumo

In the digital era, oral history audiovisual archives are crucial primary sources for understanding the past through the voices of its protagonists. However, a fundamental challenge persists: unlike textbased documents, verbal content within audiovisual recordings remains largely inaccessible to direct and precise keyword searching. This is particularly critical for extensive oral history interviews, where locating specific information can require hours of viewing. This article presents the case of the Archive of Oral Memory of Communication Professions (AMOPC), an initiative by the School of Communication and Media Studies (ESCS/IPL) in Portugal, which addresses this challenge by innovating in the processing, publication, and, notably, the searchability of its audiovisual collection focused on the transformations in Portuguese communication professions. The paper details the evolution of AMOPC’s documentary processing strategies, from manual methods to the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. A key innovation discussed is the development and functionality of the AMOPC search engine, a tool capable of performing textual searches within audiovisual content, searching multiple archives with a single search, and providing direct links to the exact timestamps where terms appear. Furthermore, the article contextualizes the relevance of oral history, analyzes the current landscape of oral archives in Portugal, and discusses the implications of these technological advancements for archives, museums, and the future of oral memory preservation.