The archive of the community's voices. Libraries and oral tradition in the digital era

International audienceA great part of the current human knowledge is still transmitted through non-written means ― oral tradition, song and music, etc. The collection, organization, research and management of these non-wri"en sources ―and particularly, of oral tradition― has usually been carried out by scholars from an strictly academic point of view; accordingly, the information collected by these specialists has been kept in archives for academic use only. This behavior stripped oral tradition of much of its practical use (especially for the people providing the original materials) and opened a gap between the Academia and the communities of practice.This paper outlines a brief approach to the nature and the importance of oral tradition in our modern world, and to how to connect traditional knowledge and communities, the Academia and its researchers, and libraries as a common space. It also drafts some ideas about how to deal with it from a LIS (Library and Information Sciences) perspective, and how to use ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in a planned, sensitive and responsible manner, in the collection, organization and revitalization of oral tradition