The Oral History Records Rescue Group (OHRRG) Digitisation Project at the State Library of Western Australia

Digitising Oral History at the State Library of Western Australia: the Oral History Records Rescue Group (OHRRG) Project - In-house digitisation project of analogue audio cassette tape collection - Providing digital preservation and access: collaboration, building the structure, innovative solutions, realities, lessons learnt, and the future. The State Library of Western Australia’s (SLWA) Oral History Collection holds over 13,000 hours of analogue audio cassette tape, comprising over 6,000 interviews. The collection was established in 1961, with the earliest date of birth of a person interviewed being 1871 (remember Western Australia was only established as a colony in 1829). To achieve the Library’s Strategic Direction “to preserve and make available our Western Australian Heritage Collections to the community”, the OHRRG project was formed to secure funding from Western Australia’s Lotterywest which uses funds from running lotteries to support community projects. OHRRG is a consortium of various community organisations and individuals who are passionate about the preservation of oral history records. This paper will explain the background to the OHRRG Project for the digitisation of the State Library of Western Australia’s oral history audio collection and to fulfil its obligation to preserve ‘at risk’ and ‘in-demand’ material. The goals and strategies of the project included: • cooperation and collaboration with the stakeholders; • learning from other libraries’ experiences in developing in-house operations; • community involvement; • setting up the decision-making processes required to manage an in-house project; • targeting the funding proposal; • developing the necessary internal skills; • building the infrastructure including sound studios and equipment; • acquiring staff expertise; • creating and integrating new workflows; • finding innovative ways of using equipment to improve productivity; and • developing a policy for ‘Original Materials Collection Copyright and Access’.