Abstract
Robert Perks
Lead Curator of Oral History & Director of National Life Stories, British Library, London
Looking critically at different modes of collecting oral history
Over the past 25 years the British Library (BL) has developed one of the largest oral history collections in the world through a wide variety of fieldwork techniques, partnerships and collecting methodologies, as well as through passive deposit. Some initiatives - such as the 'Millennium Memory Bank' and the 'Listening Project' with the BBC - have been huge public projects. Others, especially through National Life Stories, have followed an in-depth life story model. Rob Perks will provide an overview of the BL's oral history collections and reflect on their distinctive aspects and challenges both for the archivist and the researcher.
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