Mariana Ou has given the world a splendid new resource for researching and teaching British public library history.
Scrolling through the internet for new developments in library history, I ran across Ou’s creative project to preserve the experiences of London’s library workers.
Ou recently completed a master’s dissertation in Library Science at City, University of London, entitled The Public Libraries of London Collection: Oral History in the Digital Age. Ou also delivered a conference paper, “Oral History for Library History,” at the CILIP Local Studies Group Conference that synopsized the major findings.
In these works, Ou interviewed public library staff in London, and gathered their narratives into an interactive, open access collection, “The Public Libraries of London”:
https://www.layersoflondon.org/map/collections/4
The collection was created in the web repository Layers of London. This platform allows researchers from several institutions to contribute and display historical data about the City through digital maps.
An inspiring project!! Hope will see more projects that follow Ou’s example in the future!
Best,
Brett
Editor, LHRT News & Notes