Oral History Repository Development by Crowd Sourcing Using Web Platform: a

proposal with special reference to North East India

Moumita AshAssistant Librarian GR.II, Jadavpur University

&Prof. Pijushkanti Panigrahi

Professor, Dept of Library & Information Science, University of CalcuttaIASLIC 26th National Seminar 2014

November 25-28, 2014Dept of Library & Information Science, Gauhati University, Guwahati

OnRoadmap to Usher in Knowledge Society

Developing Oral History Repository by Crowd Sourcing Using Web Platform

objectives

• To create a collaborative database of Oral history

• To make a prototype outline of non-documentary community archive of oral history, folk lore, folk tales, ballads, myths.

• To develop a public library network for conserving oral history through digital humanities techniques

Oral History

• Oral history is a micro level study of unfolded, undocumented public history which is hidden in community memory and neglected by main stream historical research.

Oral history is also important sources of oppressive part of the society (e.g. women's history and labour history) whose voice has not been documented ever.

Oral History

• In the context of India, oral history has great importance due to absence of written histories and primitive societies have long relied on oral tradition to preserve a record of the past.

Oral History & Social Knowledge

Cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions and community histories are documented in oral tradition which are the valuable tacit social knowledge flow generation to generation spontaneously as civilization goes on.

Oral history has been archived at community memories.

Conservation of Oral History

• The tradition of oral history has been faced a critical sustainability problem due to socio economic changes, revolutionary changes in community living pattern. Rapid urbanization, migration, immigration have also changed the demographic patterns which have very much affected cultural heritage as well as erased and fragmented many value able treasures of oral history.

Oral History Repository

A cloud & crowd source based digital repository where community memories are archived with unfolding the tacit social knowledge. The repository is a documentation of social memory.

Oral History Repository - Prototype

• Step 1 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS First step of repository making will be

identified the geographical territory and village will be taken as basic unit of data collection. This model depends on human memory more than historical records. Example : Unfolded Social memory of North East India roots in folklore and ordinary people like tribal elders.

Oral History Repository - Prototype

….. Primary methods of data collection will be the method of interviewing local people and collecting folk tales, myths, ballads as well as analysis those collected folklore and identify the historical truth. Sometimes, web platform may be used for self archiving, though the authenticity of archived material will be verified.

Oral History Repository & Crowd Sourcing

Crowd sourcing will be based on social network as well as community network of public libraries which will act as the platform of data collection, resource linkers, seeker and connector of fragmented community members. The distributed willing and participatory crowd will work as linker and conservator of sources.

Oral History Repository & Crowd Sourcing……..Role of Social Media

Crowd Sourcing through social media also help to accumulate data as well as community opinion regarding specific topic or issue from fragmented community members who may live different part of the world now.

Oral History Repository - Prototype….PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATIONMetadata

Dublin Core Metadata schema and MODS will be considered for oral history documents archiving. Bracero History Archive Metadata Schema based on Dublin Core is a brief customized example of oral history conservation though it may need to be customized further with scope and goals of projects

Oral History Repository - Prototype

……PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATION Oral History Repository will be web portal

based and interactive one. The multimedia files will be archived zone wise then categorized subject wise. A responsive map will also be used to browse the archived files.

…….Oral History Repository – PrototypeCloud & Crowd Based Web Archiving and Access Tools

Interactive 3D Maps - Hypercities

Oral History Repository - Prototype…….PRESERVATION AND DISSEMINATIONLegal Issues The consent of interviewee(s) should be

collect for authenticity of documentation as well as Intellectual Property Right related issues. Creative Common License will be used for the acquired knowledge dissemination. There will be the legal agreement between the project, the interviewer, and the narrator.

Public Library & Oral History Conservation

• Traditional channels are insufficient to map mental geography of community life where public library has immense potentiality to fill the vacuum. As public libraries have potentiality to play the role of -

Information Centre of Local Community Community Users’ information need meet point Scope to ore-mining undocumented public history

by collecting information from personal collection, scattered government documents, oral history

Diverse North East India

Oral History Repository & Crowd Sourcing – Library Platform……….Scope in North East India North East Indian States (Arunachal Pradesh,

Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura) more than 200 tribes inhabit with their cultural and lingual diversity and as multiple language families (Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Tai-Kadai, Austroasiatic) with 220 lingual varieties exist in North East India. Geographical, anthropological diversity of North East Asia have made its social and cultural history distinct from other parts of Indian sub-continent.

………. Scope in North East India

The journey of this territory has begun from Neolithic era. In Mahabharata, Ramayana and different Puranas, North East India was mentioned with existence of enriched civilizations like Pragjyotisha, Kamrupa or Manipur kingdom. Most of this historical treasure are not recorded and/or documented yet. Oral history conservation will be the path to reinvent the treasure from social memory

Oral History Repository ……….Scope in North East India

From the era of Mahabharata, the tribal culture of Himalayan regions and social cohesion with other parts of India, have created distinct tradition and complexities to identify historical roots from folklore and other oral sources. North East India is a region where folklore and history visibly meet.

Oral History Repository ……….Scope in North East India

Public Library has existed in North East India from early twentieth century. Public Library System exists in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. This Public Library Network will help local library professionals and library volunteers to communicate and curate oral histories of diverse communities following 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples .

Conclusion

Crowd Sourcing at interactive web platform provides an opportunity for libraries to unfold social memories as well as tacit knowledge and conserve them for posterity as mirror of their root.

The diverse North East India has immense potency to develop ‘Oral History Repository’.

THANK YOU