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Oral History and Sound Collections
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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All users should be aware that some topics or historical content may be culturally sensitive, offensive or distressing, and that some images may contain nudity or are of people not yet identified.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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Learn more about Oral History and Sound
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Books
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Doing oral history [catalogue record | book]
By Donald A Ritchie. Illustrated with examples from a wide range of projects, this practical guide includes chapters on ethical and legal issues in oral history, digital recording and archiving and evaluating and interpreting interviews.
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Oral history handbook [catalogue record | book]
By Beth Robertson. An introduction to doing oral history published by Oral History South Australia that is well established as the national standard. Beth Robertson draws on 25 years experience of practising and teaching oral history techniques and preserving sound recordings.
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Oral history theory [catalogue record | book]
By Lyn Abrams. This work discuses in clear terms various theoretical approaches to doing oral history and illustrates these using a wide range of examples.
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A Cultural History of Sound, Memory and the Senses [catalogue record | book]
Edited by Paula Hamilton and Joy Damousi. Historians in many fields have begun to listen to the past, developing new arguments about the history and the memory of sensory experience. This volume builds on scholarship produced over the last twenty years, drawing out connections between sound, memory and the senses.
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Oral history and digital humanities : voice, access, and engagement [catalogue record | book]
Edited by Douglas A. Boyd and Mary A. Larson, who look at the developments that have occurred in the practice of oral history since digital audio and video became viable. Various groundbreaking projects in digital oral history are explored.
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Oral history and photography [catalogue record | ebook]
Edited by Alexander Freund and Alistair Thomson.
This book collects original research essays to explore the diverse uses of photographs and photography in oral history, from the use of photos as memory triggers to their deployment in the telling of life stories. The book's contributors include both oral historians and photography scholars and critics.
Access the ebook if you're in the Library. Registered NSW residents may log in from home. -
Oral history and public memories [catalogue record | book]
Edited by Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes. Oral history and public memories is the first book to explore the relationship between the practice of oral history and the field of memory studies.
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A shared authority : essays on the craft and meaning of oral and public history [catalogue record | book]
by Michael Frisch. First published in 1990 and considered a ground breaking work in the field of oral history, Michael Fritsch in a series of essays and reviews considered the possibilities for a “shared authority” between historian and narrator in oral history work.
Held in offsite storage. Request through the catalogue or call (02) 9273 1414 to request in advance. Book will be available after 4pm the next weekday. -
Women's words : the feminist practice of oral history [catalogue record | book]
Edited by Sherna Berger Gluck and Daphne Patai. Thirteen essays written by authors from a number of different disciplines. Women’s Words was one of the first works that explored feminist perspectives in oral history.
Journals
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Oral History Association of Australia journal [catalogue record | journal]
Published annually since 1979. Available online via Informit Humanities & Social Sciences.
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Oral History Review [catalogue record | journal]
Journal of the US Oral History Association, published since 1973.
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Words and Silences
Official peer reviewed journal of the International Oral History Association (IOHA) published annually in English and Spanish.
Featured item : The Oral History Reader
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The oral history reader [catalogue record | book]
edited by Robert Perks and Alistair Thomson.
Now in its 3rd edition, The oral history reader is a key resource for students and teachers of oral history, covering a broad range of themes and providing a comprehensive source of theoretical and practical information on oral history as it is practised around the globe.