This book is a collection of 17 papers presented at a satellite meeting of the 65th IFLA general conference held in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1999. This particular meeting was held at Khon Kaen in northern Thailand, 16‐19 August. The preservation of cultural heritage in all parts of the world formed part of the primary focus of IFLA’s medium‐term programme 1998‐2001. In addition, the IFLA professional board identified preservation and conservation of the intellectual heritage in the world’s libraries as one of the professional priorities for the future work of IFLA. One of IFLA’s primary roles in this area is to ensure appropriate coordination of preservation activities at the international level through programmes such as advocacy, training, and the development and dissemination of standards and best practices. It was with these priorities in mind that the theme “Collecting and safeguarding the oral tradition” was chosen as the theme for the official pre‐session seminar.
In his introduction, the chair of IFLA’s professional board stresses that oral history represents an important foundation for the understanding of cultures and social tradition throughout the world. “With today’s technologies, we have the means to collect and preserve original oral renditions of stories, music, recollections, sacred tradition and personal histories.” Even for societies with well‐established documentary traditions, oral heritage enhances the written word.
The authors included in this volume tell us of their passion and energy to preserve the threatened traditions of such countries, and what they are doing. Thirteen of the papers, the majority, report activities around the world. From Africa we learn of the importance of oral tradition for children – one library in Senegal brings in a professional storyteller to recount stories and organize traditional games for children. Again from Senegal, is an impressive account of digitizing an oral archive, classifying the types of oral tradition, and describing methods of processing the data. From Mali, we learn of “men of wisdom”, holders of the oral tradition, whose knowledge is in urgent need of recording before they cease to be replaced. In Asia we learn of the role of libraries in preserving and promoting oral culture; oral traditions in Thailand; the south east Asia mountain people’s programmes; and inter‐generational cultural transmission in Singapore. From Europe we learn of the role of the Bibliothèque National de France in collecting the French oral heritage. A speaker from the Cayman Islands reports experience of collecting and preserving oral history in small island communities; while from South America there are calls to promote the use of native languages, especially in areas of poor literacy. A paper from the Arctic regions goes beyond the oral tradition to consider traditional knowledge, particularly in respect of the hunting and conservation of mammals – is was a surprise to see sections on whales, polar bears, reindeer and caribou in a book on oral history! Finally, from the Pacific area, come accounts from Fiji and Vanuatu. Three general papers cover the UNESCO memory of the world programme and oral tradition; technical aspects such as the care, handling and preservation of the oral records themselves; and the closing paper goes “Beyond print: using the Internet for preservation and stimulation of local culture”.
The papers vary in their amount of detail, but the editing and book production have been done well. What we have here is an excellent mix of practice and achievement. Even the most cursory reading will stimulate interest and provoke questions. Clearly there is an element of urgency about recording oral traditions, but how many and how much is it sensible to collect? The distinction between recording oral tradition and “doing” oral history needs to be made clearer, and I wonder whether we are so occupied in collecting the data that we lack a longer term vision of where it is all going? Lacking a Darwinian natural selection (and forgetting) of memories, are we heading for “total recall”? How will this be indexed? And what of the preservation and survival of the recordings themselves? Tape degradation and Web site archiving are already problems. Other sources cover many of these questions, but attention is paid to some of these issues in the book. Some of the points considered make uncomfortable reading; thus the arrogance of the western intellectual tradition is chastised by an African writer as disenfranchising alternative cultures. Herein is another role for the oral tradition: a counterbalance to the literate one.
This is a stimulating and instructive “state‐of‐the‐art” sort of book. For libraries concerned with cultural and media studies, sociology and literature, international and local studies, archives and museums, this is recommended reading.
