250,000 sounds preserved by Unlocking Our Sound Heritage

By Katerina Webb-Bourne, Communications Intern for Unlocking Our Sound Heritage. Time is running out to preserve some of our most endangered sound recordings. The Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) project is now four years into an ambitious, National Lottery Heritage Funded five-year project to safeguard at-risk recordings. Despite the challenges…

Recording of the week: Breathe in

This week’s selection comes from Giulia Baldorilli, Reference Specialist. Born in 1885 in a small town in the Free State province of South Africa, Tromp Van Diggelen had an unfortunate childhood. He suffered from various respiratory-related illnesses, such as pneumonia. Supported by his teacher at school, Tromp started studying the…

Remote oral history interviewing at the British Library during the Covid-19 pandemic

An update on National Life Stories projects

On teaching languages

Reference Specialist, Giulia Baldorilli, writes: The Direct Method, teaching a language by speaking it (Stray 1992: 12), was originally introduced by W.H.D. Rouse in the late 19th century and is part of the wider Applied Linguistic interdisciplinary field. Son of a Baptist missionary from India, Rouse attended Regent’s Park College…

Recording of the week: the swimming songbird

This week’s selection comes from Cheryl Tipp, Curator of Wildlife & Environmental Sounds. The White-throated Dipper (Cinclus cinclus) is a bird that just loves water. Normally found alongside fast flowing rivers and streams, this little songbird has evolved to dive, swim and even walk underwater. Though it’s almost impossible to…