Hong Kong Experience: The Construction of Oral History Archives and the Roles of Libraries

Abstract

The author has provided an overview of several oral history archive projects in Hong Kong, and offered her comments on the role libraries may perform in promoting oral history. These archives are different in nature and format, such as an archive managed by the university library, corporate archives of two institutions for internal studies only, and a web-based archive of oral histories. The library and the archive offices involved have respective roles to play due to the differences in the information management system of the archives. The author suggests that libraries may define their roles in doing oral history from two directions: the mission of oral history and quality assurance. Oral history is to let ordinary lives be more visible in the public history. Libraries are good at meeting the public, while research institutes are professional in doing oral history. The best model will be for a library to work with a research institute in the design and implementation of oral history projects, with the library taking more role in reaching out and allowing accessibility of oral history records to the public.