Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visitors are kindly advised that this website includes images, sounds and names of people who have passed.
All users should be aware that some topics or historical content may be culturally sensitive, offensive or distressing, and that some images may contain nudity or are of people not yet identified. Certain words, terms or descriptions may reflect the author's/creator's attitude or that of the period in which they were written, but are now considered inappropriate in today's context.
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Amplify is a platform designed to deliver audio collections from the State Library of New South Wales’ sound archive alongside computer-generated transcripts. These transcripts can be edited by any user to improve their accuracy and ultimately enrich our sound collections for the benefit of all State Library patrons nationally and internationally.
As part of our Digital Excellence Program, the Library has been focussed on the significant undertaking of digitising our world-class collections, aiming to not only preserve them but also provide greater access to broader audiences around the globe. To date, the more than 12,000 hours of sound recordings from our collections have been digitised.
Recent advances in speech-to-text technologies have meant we’ve seen great progress in computer-generated transcripts, making it easier to produce transcripts for our wonderful sound collections. While the accuracy of these transcripts are higher than ever before, they still tend to be error-prone and require careful human editing to reach full accuracy.
Correcting our computer-generated transcripts is a community effort and you can help us to improve the quality of each transcript by correcting just a single line or every single line in an entire audio recording – every bit counts! Listen along to our great sound collections and if you spot an error, click on the line with the mistake, make your correction and then continue listening on.
It’s as easy as that!
![Bridge builders [Ted Hood, 1911-2000]](http://libapps.s3.amazonaws.com/customers/1276/images/amplify3.jpg)
MLOH 1: Richard Raxworthy – interviews, 1982-1989, with Sydney Harbour Bridge builders, relating experiences 1923-1932
The Bridge Builders interviews were conducted between 1982-89, with a variety of tradesmen who worked on the building of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Amongst the 45 interviewees were drillers, riveters, concrete packers, boilermakers, riggers, ironworkers, plasterers, stonemasons, an official photographer, comptometer operators, sleeper cutters, engineers, draughtsmen – born in Australia and overseas. The 29 hours of recordings provide access to stories of workers in the 1920s and 30s and the history of building one of Sydney’s most iconic landmarks.
MLOH 307: Faith Bandler interviewed by Carolyn Craig, 1997
From humble beginnings with her South Sea Islander family on the NSW north coast near Murwillumbah, Faith Bandler AC became a leading voice in the struggle for Aboriginal rights - especially in the historic 1967 referendum campaign for citizenship rights.
Faith's love of the arts (music and writing) and passion for equality led to important friendships with leading contemporaries and activists in Australia and throughout the world. In these 15 interviews, Faith also explores her own South-Sea Islander heritage and identity.
You can learn more about Faith Bandler by reading her biography or the two books she wrote about her family, Welou, My Brother and Wacvie.
MLOH 448: Garry Wotherspoon interviews with gay men, 1980-1988
Garry Wotherspoon is a teacher, writer and historian who taught Australian economic and social history and minority studies at the University of Sydney. He has published books on gay history, articles in Campaign, Outrage, Gay Information and other magazines and edited Being Different: Nine Gay Men Remember, 1986.
These oral histories were conducted 1980-1988 and record the memories of gay men (and two women) who remember the underground years of gay culture, the illicit meetings, the arrests and protests. These interviews also formed the basis of his publication City of the Plain, a history of Sydney's gay subculture. It was a work that signalled the beginning of a new, serious attention to the existence and importance of gay culture.
The Library has included black and white & colour digital images from Sydney Photographer Geoff Friend to complement the collection of oral histories by Garry Wotherspoon of material documenting the story of Mardi Gras and the gay rights movement.
MLOH 103: Richmond-Tweed Oral History Group – Under the Rainbow
Interviews with residents of the Nimbin communities regarding the Aquarius Festival and their alternative lifestyles. Interviews were also conducted with people who were residents of Nimbin prior to the festival, regarding the impact on the area.
The oral histories in the Rainbow Archive come from a range of perspectives, discussing in detail the origins of the festival and its founders from the Australian Union of Students; the inspiration of festivals abroad such as the infamous Woodstock in the USA; the reasons for the selection of Nimbin (then a fading dairy town) as the site for an all-encompassing festival of creation, creativity and anti-consumerism; the work that went into transforming the town; and the wider effects of the festival on Nimbin, the region, and activism in Australia.
The interviewees speak of not only the excitement of creating a new life but also the difficulties and frustrations of communal living.
