Libraries' efforts in saving community voices through local oral history: A case study from national, public, academic, and rural perspectives

Abstract

Oral history is an effective tool and strategy for preserving multicultural histories. By carrying out oral history projects, libraries can not only deeply capture and preserve the rich tapestries of feelings, impressions, images, activities, memories, and personal histories that are part of the everyday life of a community, but also use them as innovative services to encourage and attract community participation in collaborative construction of local history collection. In recent years, Chinese libraries have launched oral history projects targeting diverse communities. Representative cases include the National Library of China's nationwide oral project of inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, the various projects launched by provincial public libraries and academic libraries, and a rural library named Wei Guang Shu Yuan recording oral history from the elders in the village. By utilizing these local oral resources that reflect different communities, the library can promote information acquisition, public advocacy, education and training, and even digital interaction in innovative ways, to encourage more patrons to recognize and understand the value of local cultural history. Through case studies, best practices of different types of libraries in existing practices in excavating multicultural oral history records are explored such as 1) standardizing to be diversified and inclusive, 2) cooperating to be financially and professionally stronger, and 3) utilizing to promote and impact. Oral history projects of libraries can better build of the future of libraries based on the uniting accumulation and utilization of the local voices and knowledge, to promote the expansion of special collections of local culture and history in libraries for the future and inclusive services for multicultural groups in their communities. Keywords: Oral history, National library, Public library, Academic library, Rural library