It’s been about 12 days since my last post and this is my last. Having internet access has been much harder to get than I would ever have imagined and even when I’ve gone to “wifi free” zones in cafes, service stations and public spaces I have had to join up and this of course takes precious battery time.

In Sunderland I went to Living History North East. It was marvellous! I was able to speak with the director and her staff at length and learned about how they set up and collate oral histories. As well as audio recordings they do video oral hstories. Video Oral histories look very effective but I’m not inclined to use them (as are many oral historians) because of the added technical requirements such as lighting and the considerable expense. LHNE link relevant collections to the UK curriculum so their focus is practical application of the historical material they gather; I was very impressed. Living History North East is not connected to a council so it is a relatively small organisation and all their pursuits are historical. For example, they do classroom re-enactments with school groups in their offices which are located in a 1798 fully restored Charity school with attached mistresses’ house. What a treat! Most of the places I’ve visited have been in industrial areas. I was given several published oral history projects as examples which will be very useful.

I stayed in Glasgow for 6 days. The University of Strathclyde houses the Scottish Oral History Centre. I spoke with the director of the centre and gathered material of use to the development of the TAFE NSW Sutherland Oral History Project. The SOHC was established in 1995 as a research and training centre designed primarily to promote best practice methodology in oral history in Scotland.

The University of Strathclyde also hosted the 2009 UK Oral History Conference. I was both an attendee and presenter of a paper. The conference was an amazing opportunity to network, promote the TAFE project, gather materials and learn. I made many new friends who have a passion for oral history. The keynote speaker, Professor Stephen High from Canada was inspirational. He promotes the use and application of oral history recordings. He argues that there is little point in creating archives of thousands of hours of oh recordings if they are not used and easily accessible. I felt validated because the fundamental premise behind the TAFE NSW Sutherland College Oral History Project is the application of oral history to learning resources for adult Language and Literacy students and NSW curriculum in an easily accessible format.

My paper was very well received and some very nice adjectives were used to describe the wiki website.

Just outside Glasgow I did some research at the interestingly named “Here We Are” oh project. Cairndow is a village community keeping the history of their community alive through the use, primarily, of oral history. They gave me some fantastic advice and documents on how they structure the gathering of information. In many respects Sutherland College is a small community and the ideas are pertinent.

After Glasgow I made my way to the North West Sound Archive in Clitheroe. The complex was in the grounds of Clitheroe Castle built in Norman times – wow! The director and staff were lovely, helpful and encouraging. I bought 2 of their “theme packs”; on Christmas and Easter and I hope to use the ideas for lesson materials for ABE students – linked to the website. I learned about their training methods and they kindly gave me their entire training manual used for anyone who wants to learn about interviewing. As well they gave me a copy of their summary sheet. Help like this makes a big difference as time is saved. I showed them how I use a digital pen to help with summaries of recordings and they thought it was terrific and valid new technology.

In Redruth in Cornwall I did research at the Cornish and Visual Archive. They have an extensive collection on World War 2 reminiscences. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed in England is that the general population often alludes to this war; it remains in people’s minds. I gathered some very good resources here which will help with archiving the oral histories in Sutherland’s website.

Tomorrow I leave for Australia. My study tour has been fantastic.

Yorkshire started out as a challenge – the internet server at the Sheffield hotel went down and the hire car broke down – horrible!

My first visit in Sheffield was to the Weston Park Museum. I researched excerpts from 5 oral history collections held by the museum: Bungreave Corner Shops (on new communities established in Sheffield such as Somalian residents), Sheffield during the Second World War, Working Lives (an oral history of the last traditional steel grinder in Sheffield), George and Joyce Burton (memories of a long term family business) and various people talking about an enormous and innovative housing estate at Park Hill.

I was also able to get the complete Bungreave Voices – Celebrating People and Place; a community oral history project, an excellent model of a text based oh project with internet links and downloadable education pack.

The benefits of combining images with audio was reinforced here. Also, I learned a technique for converting local slang, idiom and accent into widely recognisable language. This is particularly useful for the TAFE project second language interviewees.

I was feeling a little glum when I set out for my visit to Sheffield Local Studies Library and Sheffield Archives because some details I needed were stored in my Favourites file and I couldn’t access that with my internet server down and I couldn’t find an internet cafe. British regional oral history collections are held in the same buildings as the vast collections of personal, local, legal, building, church, business, hospital, map, newspaper etc records so I was understandably worried about my research. However the first archivist I approached was the person I’d been in contact with! How about that – over 3000 employees and 300 library staff and my first contact referred to our emails! My visits were very productive. Highlights included learning more on how to format a transcription, advertising oh projects and tape conversion to CD.

Manchester City Library Local Studies Archives was another opportunity to access a range of collections. Two that stood out were queerupnorth on the establishment of Manchester’s famous festival and Speaking for Ourselves, on Sikh history. The festival archive included images, text, art, music and meetings from minutes as well as recordings. This is encouraging because the TAFE site includes songs and artwork. I also checked the length of recordings in a community intergenerational project and found the audio files ranged from 4 minutes to 9 hours!

It never ceases to amaze me how much Britain values the past. Old books and documents are read on giant grey book cushions, snakes and supports and in Manchester CDs and transcripts are packaged in folders tied with ribbon.

I was meant to go to Manchester People’s History Museum but building work which should have been finished was not. I searched the web to see if there was anyting else I could do and I found a day course on interviewing for family history at the University of Manchester. Luck! I booked in because I thought it would give useful info for school students doing the oral history elective which mostly includes interviewing familymembers. One of the trainers was a BBC journalist and amongst a lot of good hints she told us how BBC journalists keep interviewees on track (some a little devious!). The day ended up being very worthwhile and applicable to the TAFE project.

Also in Manchester I went to the Museum of Science and Industry. Apart from seeing the archives I spoke with one of the curators who gave me some exciting leads to follow up.

As you can see I am having a wonderfully productive time.

After Chelmsford I travelled to Northampton. Before leaving Australia I arranged to meet with team members of the Northamptonshire Black History Association. The work they do with oral history is inspiring and I especially love the way they have linked their oral history collection to the UK national curriculum. I met with 3 members of the team and had an illuminating time discussing the work of the association and going through their set up and resources. It was lovely as well to talk to practitioners of oral history who are also educators. At NSW Oral History Association meetings I have only met one other teacher; most members are journalists, radio and television producers, writers, librarians and archivists. It was very satisfying to discuss teaching and learning resource issues.

The NBHA records Black (African, Asian, Carribean) history and the resources they produce are designed to engage Northamptonshire students but are also relevant to any student of History in the UK. Unfortunately we can’t listen to their recordings in Australia because mini disc technology was used and the recordings are not online but some of their excellent resources are free to download from their website so I’m including the link on the TAFE website. I showed them our site and they were very encouraging.

I also got a few interview recording hints. For example they discussed the rationale behind not editing recordings – leave them be as historical records. This is something I’ve noticed about the interviews I’ve been listening to in general in England. In the NSW OHA meetings the topic of editing invariably comes up. They also said that the TAFE website is actually an archive and this made me realise I’ve got quite a lot of work to do to get the accompanying info up to scratch.

In Norwich at the Norfolk Record Office I was given a guided tour of the vast facilities for audio and oral history recordings for their region. Security was very strict, to go to the cafe to buy a cup of tea required getting a pass! The NRO is aiming to have all their recordings online so we can’t access these from Australia at the moment but I’m including a link to the site because the NRO website has relevant educational resources for History students. At the NRO it was good to discuss technical aspects of digital recording and I was given some good advice on equipment. They also told me they leave “all the bits in” because the focus for the recording is the recording of history. This makes me very relieved because I find editing audio files a truly horrible and daunting job. However on the website I will still take out the ” testing testing 123 etc” as I don’t think the recording is compromised and the listener is more likely to be immediately engaged. I also spent many happy hours listening to oh recordings in their sound room.

At the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland I listened to some very old reel to reel recordings. The staff was lovely and helpful and persisted in setting up the old sound system. I listened to a selection of oral recordings including one done by school children. In the UK all recordings are valued and sought for inclusion in collections. I was very excited by my time here because I made a copy of the way they archive the hundreds of collections they hold. Being able to see how they archive the files was wonderful because even though I’ve been immersed in oral history for a long time I haven’t seen the means of archiving the files until coming to this office. I now know what to do on the TAFE website in the Oral History Recordings section.

It’s very fortunate I use a NAVMAN to get around because so far, apart from London, every place I’ve visited has been in an industrial area or remote hall.

WEEK 1

Hello everyone,

My learning adventure in the UK has started and I am delighted with what I have learned so far.

In London I listened to oral history recordings at the London Docklands Museum, Kensington Museum and the British Library. Listening to them was very reassuring because I believe the recordings I have done in Australia are on a par with the English interviews. Initially I thought my visit to London Museum was going to be disappointing because renovations have just begun there and only one section was open. However the staff were very helpful and gave me brochures and educational materials which include oral history applications. They also told me about the oral history exhibits at their sister museum, Docklands; they were excellent. The Oral Histories at Docklands Museum and Kensington gave me a great idea – using short excerpts on specific themes. My hotel was about 15 minutes walk away from Kensington Museum and I went there instead of the London Migrant and Refugees Community forum because it has apparently dispersed its collection to museums. Even though they were “live” when I planned my tour their office is no longer current. The oral history exhibits at Kensington softened my disappointment.

One complication for my time in London was a two day tube (train) strike which was announced unexpectedly. Getting into London from my hotel took a lot of planning and ingenuity. I put on my walking shoes and joined thousands of commuters on overcrowded buses and footpaths. At the end of the day the buses were packed and I got back to my hotel past 10 o’clock!

At the British Library I did an all day training course conducted by the UK Oral History Society. It gave me some great ideas for Language and Literacy lessons. Being in the library was fascinating. Training was conducted in the Staff Only section and all doors opened automatically so that library staff didn’t dirty their hands and compromise conservation work. I made a particularly good contact with an American oral historian working in London who is currently building a community oral history website. I also found out that it’s common procedure in the UK for the interviews to be allocated to a team rather than one interviewer.I actually don’t like this idea, I prefer a hands on approach.

From London I travelled to Chemsford and researched at the Essex Sound and Video Archive Record Office. Gaining access is very rigorous but it was especially worthwhile. I learned the best way to present information about the content of the oral histories I collected. I had never thought to use a synopsis to highlight the key themes covered in each interview but I think it’s a wonderful idea because it makes the interviews significantly more accessible for research purposes – especially for high school students.