The Living Libraries archive

The interviews gathered as part of the Living Libraries project form the UK’s first oral history archive of interviews specifically focused on the public library. In order to store and preserve these interviews, we are delighted to have partnered with National Life Stories, at the British Library. All our interviews are archived in the British Library Sound Archive, where they are publicly accessible, dependent on any access restrictions requested by our interviewees. This archive will be preserved in perpetuity, as a valuable resource for future researchers.

What does the Living Libraries archive consist of?

Living Libraries: Interviews with people who run, work in and use the UK’s public libraries consists of the following:

• 47 oral history interviews with users and staff - including volunteers - of Peterborough Central Library, Falmouth Library, Colliers Wood Library, Storyhouse, in Chester, and Newcastle City Library, as well as interviews with national figures in the libraries sector. The audio is stored in WAV format.

• Full summaries of each interview.

The collection is copyright of the British Library Board.

How can I access these interviews?

The full collection has been accessioned, catalogued, and archived by National Life Stories at the British Library, and is available as part of the British Library Sound Archive, in early 2021. The best way to access the detailed interview summaries is through the online Sound & Moving Image catalogue, entering C1868 in the search box. You can listen to the full interviews in the British Library via the catalogue. For more information please see Listening and Viewing service guidance.

If you can’t make it to the library at this point and would like to listen, why not listen to some extracts from our interviews, check out our collaboration with Seadog Theatre, or the short documentary piece which draws on our archive?