The term archive can refer to permanently valuable records (such as photographs, recordings, and letters, to name but a few), an organization that maintains historical records and documents, or the physical space where the records are maintained. Since oral history does ideally require long-term maintenance and properly managed preservation of all types of records, it is most common to work with a well-established archival repository with a clear track record for managing the media format and the complexities of the sensitive nature of oral history work. See more on this definition at the Society for American Archivists: https://www2.archivists.org/about-archives; for more on personal archiving—of family recordings, for example—see https://digitalpreservation.gov/personalarchiving/.
