Subject area: National Library of Australia’s oral history collection

Format: Learning webinar and exploring oral histories

Length: 1 hour

Audience: Library professionals, archivists

Organisers: National Library of Australia

Presenters: Mark Piva and Dr Shirleene Robinson

 

Reflection:

My main objective of engaging in this webinar was to learn about the National Library of Australia’s oral history collection, how it is collected and accessed by the public.

Oral history is about individual lived experiences of historic events. These kinds of interviews document rich, nuanced, intimate, and personal details about people’s lives and how they connect to historical events and periods such as the polo outbreak of the 50s and World War I. Oral histories can complement other collection material and document the voices of everyday ordinary people that would otherwise not beheard. For example, the ‘Bringing them home’ oral histories collection which contains 340 interviews with people from the stolen generations or from people who were involved in removing Aboriginal and Torress Strait Islander children from their families. The library safeguards people’s privacy and dignity by gaining permission to share people’s stories in a way that accords with them. The over 50,000 hours of unique recordings is a fully digitised collection. Each year new recordings are added to the collection, recorded in the recording studio of the National library as well as with field recording equipment in remote locations of Australia. The collection is accessed on the searchable catalogue with recordings available online with transcripts and summaries. The preservation process of original recordings to digital files involves duplicating the original recording as well as preserving original tapes, cassettes and their players.

Part of this webinar is a virtual guide of how to navigate and access the oral history collection on the National Library of Australia’s website. This included how to apply search filters on the catalogue to narrow down to audio collections, specific subject areas and time periods. Although the website’s layout and appearance has changed, I was was still able to use the tutorial and figured out how to play and analyze the recordings online, find details in the catalogue record and transcript, generate citations for an interview, and pick up key words and themes in the online summaries provided that may not have been mentioned in the interview. I was able to practice these skills on the catalogue, and explored recordings from subject areas such as Australian folklore and poetry. I also found many contemporary recordings of interest such as this interview with Clementine Ford that requires special access conditions.

This webinar piqued my interest in this form of storytelling and documenting collective memory that still feels countercultural. I see the importance of oral histories for migrants and diverse communities being able tell their own authentic stories and for communities to gain access to them in this form. Although the webinar looks at the National Library’s collection, its relevance for a public library at the local level is clear. It gave me a tangible idea of the process behind collecting and providing access to oral histories, and the value and nature of such a project.