Living Libraries with Just Radio

One of the most exciting parts of any oral history project is the moment, mid-way through an interview, when you realise you’re having a completely unique, unrepeatable experience - a conversation with someone that could only be happening in that room, at that time, between those two particular people, prompted by a specific set of questions. We’re looking forward to making those conversations available to you through the British Library Sound Archive early in 2021 - but we want to let you listen in on them in new and different ways, too.

This new audio piece, produced by Just Radio, aims to do just that. It collages together some of our oral history interviews with new material from Falmouth Library, Halesworth Library in Suffolk, and Public Library News’s Ian Anstice, among others, to explore just how much libraries have changed in recent years. Transforming from silent spaces to ‘community living rooms’, as our interviewee Jayne puts it, public libraries have proved their adaptability and resilience time and again. Their response to the current COVID-19 crisis is no exception. Listen below to find out more about what libraries and their staff got up to in lockdown, and how they are dealing with the new, socially distanced normal.

Putting this together during the pandemic has been no mean feat, and we are very grateful to Susan Marling of Just Radio for scripting, presenting and producing this piece for us.

Have a listen, and do let us know what you think in the comments below.