ABSTRACT
Major sound archives function both as generators and magnets for interviews. The British Sound Archive holds one of the largest collections in the world (over one million discs and several thousand tapes). Notable projects include The Century Speaks: Millenium Oral History Project and National Life Stories. North American repositories include the Columbia Center for Oral History (home to more than eight thousand oral and visual interviews), the Smithsonian Institution Archives in Washington DC, and the Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training at the Library of Congress. In many instances folklore and oral history collections are housed under one roof. The National Library of Australia Oral History Collection, for example, holds interviews about both social history and prominent Australians, together with folklore material.
