A new Foreign Affairs Oral History Program has been established in the Library under an agreement with the Association of Diplomatic Studies. The program is dedicated to the collection of oral history interviews from those concerned with the foreign relations of the United States, e.g. retired foreign service officers and former ambassadors. Approximately 80 interviews have been completed so far, mainly with senior officers who were ambassadors from before World War II to the present. The collection is unique; no other oral history program focuses exclusively on the foreign affairs experience. Presently volunteers are interviewing retired colleagues in New England, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Florida and California, and the Program anticipates considerable expansion over the next few years.

There are also several other projects under way. The Foreign Service Family Project interviews spouses who have shared the overseas experience with their husbands or wives. This is an expanding project which will be of interest not only to those studying foreign affairs but also to those interested in the changing role of women and the family. Another consists of a series of interviews with most living women ambassadors. The last project included in the Program is an ongoing set of interviews with retired United States Information Agency officers.

The Program has developed, also, the Foreign Affairs Resource Listing (FARL) as a tool for researchers. Over one thousand retired foreign affairs officials have responded to questions asking where and when they served and what they did. These data have been entered into a computer and are subject to recall in various forms.

Copies of all tapes and transcripts will be deposited with the Library's Special Collections Division. Program Director Stuart Kennedy is working with the University Archivist to make the transcripts easily available through the use of computer indexing.