Oral History and Sound Collections

This guide introduces you to our Oral History and Sound collections. Oral History and Sound comprises recorded oral histories, radio interviews, talks, podcasts, performances and seminars. Oral History and Sound is a growing collection that forms part of the State Library's commitment to collect material that documents life in New South Wales.

Most of our Oral History and Sound collections are available as digital files on request.

From recordings undertaken in the 1950s through to contemporary times, the voices and memories of the people of New South Wales have been preserved.

Whether you are an academic, a student, an author, a family historian or local historian, a professional researcher or artist or simply interested in a particular topic, this guide will help you to get started using the Oral History and Sound collections.

As part of our Digital Excellence Program, the Library is digitising over 12,000 hours of analogue and reel to reel taped interviews and sound artefacts, enhancing online access to these collections and ensuring their preservation for the future.

This is presenting new possibilities to interact with our Oral History and Sound collections like never before. Hearing the spoken word in a recording can move, inform and surprise in ways that written texts cannot.

Oral History and Sound collections are used for many different purposes, such as

• In corporate and institutional histories
• As inspiration and to provide context in creative work such as plays, film and television and radio documentary
• With people who have been underrepresented in written sources such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, women, migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds and GLBTIQ communities.
• In museums and galleries as part of wider exhibitions
• To map the development and history of local communities.