Review and Accounts 2012/2013 National Life Stories Chairman’S
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Life NATIONAL stories Review and Accounts 2012/2013 National Life Stories Chairman’s When many people think about history, they think about initiated a series of innovative interviewing programmes books and documents, castles or stately homes. In fact history funded almost entirely from sponsorship, charitable and Foreword is all around us, in our own families and communities, in the individual donations and voluntary effort. living memories and experiences of older people. Everyone has a story to tell about their life which is unique to them. Each collection comprises recorded in-depth interviews of Whilst some people have been involved in momentous a high standard, plus content summaries and transcripts to historical events, regardless of age or importance we all assist users. Access is provided via the Sound and Moving have interesting life stories to share. Unfortunately, because Image Catalogue at www.cadensa.bl.uk and a growing memories die when people do, if we don’t record what number of interviews are made available for remote web people tell us, that history can be lost forever. use. Each individual life story interview is several hours long, covering family background, childhood, education, work, National Life Stories (NLS) was established in 1987 and its leisure and later life. mission is: ‘To record the first-hand experiences of as wide a cross section of society as possible, to preserve the recordings, Alongside the British Library’s other oral history holdings, to make them publicly available and encourage their use’. which stretch back to the beginning of the twentieth century, As an independent charitable trust within the Oral History NLS’s recordings form a unique and invaluable record of Section of the British Library, NLS’s key focus and expertise people’s lives in Britain today. has been oral history fieldwork. For twenty-five years it has PRESIDENT ADMINISTRATIVE FREELANCE ORAL HISTORY TRUSTEES (at 15 May 2013) Lord Asa Briggs ASSISTANT INTERVIEWERS Bob Boas Haley Moyse Zibiah Alfred Roger Gavin Bill Knight PAST CHAIRMAN (An Oral History of Talking Sir Nicholas Goodison Martyn Goff CBE VOICES OF SCIENCE WEB National Life Stories’ core mission over the past twenty-five As our users demand greater access to our recordings online Therapists in the UK) Baron Hennessy of CO-ORDINATOR years has been to build a national collection of oral history rather than through print and CDs or onsite visits to the FOUNDER Sue Bradley Nympsfield Stephanie Baxter interviews with a broad range of British people from many British Library, so we continue to plan to retrospectively Professor Paul Thompson (British Library Staff Oral Bill Knight OBE backgrounds and professions. Its collaboration with the digitise our older analogue recordings, and make more of our PROJECT INTERVIEWERS History) Dr Scot McKendrick CHAIRMAN British Library has been rewarding for both partners, not content available via the web. In this vein we have added two Frances Cornford Louise Brodie Dr Robert Perks Sir Nicholas Goodison merely for the 2,500 interviews which have been added to new packages of interviews to the British Library’s Sounds (Crafts Lives, Artists’ Lives) (Pioneers in Charity and Dr Jo Reilly the British Library’s archive since 1987. Equally important, website, including one in collaboration with the University DIRECTOR Dr Harriet Devine Social Welfare) Prof Dorothy Sheridan MBE NLS interviews have lives outside the archive and many of Sussex about the 1980s. Partnership working is becoming Dr Robert Perks (Legacy of the English Catherine Croft Sir Harry Solomon have led to printed publications, academic articles, audio increasingly important to us, as evidenced by collaborations Stage Company) (Architects’ Lives) Professor Paul Thompson DEPUTY DIRECTOR compact discs, exhibitions and displays, radio and television with the London School of Economics for our legal project; Niamh Dillon Rachel Cutler David Webster Mary Stewart programmes, educational resources and interactive websites. with The Baring Archive, which culminated in an excellent (Architects’ Lives) (Oral History of British Jennifer Wingate Later in this Review we highlight some of the products that booklet and exhibition; and with Tesco, whose recently- ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Dr Alison Gilmour Athletics) NLS ADVISORS (at 15 May 2013) have arisen from our work since NLS was established, and published history has been based largely on the interviews we Jennifer Wingate (An Oral History of the Kirstie Gregory Sir Peter Bazalgette reflect on the impact they have had in introducing new conducted a few years ago. Water Industry) (Artists’ Lives) TREASURER Eric de Bellaigue audiences to the wider collections, in enhancing access and Dr Katharine Haydon Stephanie Kenna Bob Boas Lord Bragg encouraging best practice in the methodology of life story As I have noted previously, the fundraising environment (An Oral History of Barings) (British Library Staff Oral Professor Mary Chamberlain interviewing. remains highly competitive and we are currently seeking PROJECT DIRECTOR Dr Thomas Lean History) Sir John Craven financial support to allow our crafts and science programmes Cathy Courtney (An Oral History of Shirley Read Sir Roger Gibbs Other parts of our dissemination strategy have been to continue beyond 2013. We are grateful to those donors (Artists’ Lives, Architects’ British Science, An Oral (Oral History of British Dr Mark Girouard public lectures, training and advice, and over the past year and funders who have helped us over the past year and look Lives, Legacy of the History of the Electricity Photography) Martyn Goff CBE members of the team have travelled all over the UK and forward to working with them and others in the future. English Stage Company) Supply Industry in the UK) Ann Sproat Dundas Hamilton CBE the world, sharing the results of our expertise, research and Dr Paul Merchant (Artists’ Lives) SENIOR ACADEMIC Professor Leslie Hannah collections. We remain a world leader in our sector, with I would like to thank all our trustees, advisors, staff and (An Oral History of Robert Wilkinson CONSULTANT Dame Penelope Lively DBE a well-established track record in areas such as the visual volunteers who have worked so hard to make the past year British Science) (An Oral History of Dr Sally Horrocks Lord Rees of Ludlow OM arts and crafts, and in business and corporate oral history. such a success. Sarah O’Reilly Oral History) (An Oral History of Jonathan Taylor CBE This summer we will be participating in the first ever UK (Authors’ Lives) Jon Wood British Science and An Oral Caroline Waldegrave OBE conference about the use of oral history in business and Dr Elizabeth Wright (Artists’ Lives) History of the Electricity corporate contexts, organised by the Oral History Society (Crafts Lives) Bill Williams Supply Industry in the UK) VOLUNTEERS and Sussex University, that has attracted delegates from all VIDEO CAMERAMAN Dean Annison over the world. Our science team, through their presence at CATALOGUER Matt Casswell Claire Fons academic conferences, have also done a great deal to raise Dr Alex King Geraint Franklin awareness of our involvement in the history of science, which TRANSCRIBERS ARCHIVE ASSISTANTS Bethany Lamont will be cemented when we launch our ‘Voices of Science’ web Susan Hutton Emily Hewitt Laura Wood resource later this year, thanks to generous support from the Sir Nicholas Goodison Susan Nicholls Elspeth Millar Arcadia Fund. Chairman of Trustees Business Friend 1 Review of 2012 Rob Perks Director of National Life Stories Collections and projects with the rocketry programme. Video interviews over the past year included Roy Dommett at Farnborough Air Sciences Our Oral History of British Science programme, funded Trust with the Chevaline missile bus; Martin and Audrey largely by the Arcadia Fund, is on target to complete its first Wood at Oxford Instruments; and David ‘Dai’ Edwards phase during 2013. By the end of 2012 ninety in-depth life with the replica ‘Baby’ computer at the Museum of Science story interviews and eighteen video interviews had been and Industry in Manchester. We continue to make edited Courtesy of Denis Higton completed or were underway, amounting to nearly 1000 extracts from all the science video interviews available via recorded hours. For the Made in Britain strand, Project the British Library’s YouTube Channel (http://tinyurl.com/ (l-r) Cliff Kell, Ron Smelt, Frank Smith, Alan Thom and interviewee Dennis Higton with a Gloster E28/39, Britain’s first jet aircraft, at Farnborough in the 1940s. Interviewer Tom Lean’s major areas of focus this year have oralhistorybritishscience) and these had garnered over 7,000 been materials science and civil engineering. In materials viewings by the end of 2012. ocean sediment and cores of Antarctic ice can be used as by both ‘interviewee’ and by ‘subject’ – aiding searchability science, interviewees have discussed the transformation of records of past global temperatures. The second strand of and increasing the use of the life story recordings from the discipline as it became more based on an understanding For the science programme’s strand A Changing Planet, the climate change work has been to interview scientists lesser-heard voices within the project whose names are of the physics of materials, the development of new Project Interviewer Paul Merchant has completed interviews involved in the development of numerical weather forecasting often not well-known. techniques and new materials, such as semiconductors and