Workshop 1: London Oral History Methodologies As the national centre for oral history in Britain, the Oral History section of the British Library Sound Archive provides advice and training in oral history methods and maintains close contact with oral history groups both in Britain and abroad. This workshop invited two experienced oral history professionals to present an introduction to the field, detailing the post-war emergence of oral history as a discrete discipline and introducing the methodologies and interview techniques they have found most effective. Rob Perks, Curator of Oral History and Director of National Life Stories at the British Library Sound Archive, and Secretary of the Oral History Society, spoke first about the history of the field, citing the pioneering work of Allan Nevins, George Ewart Evans, Alex Haley and Paul Thompson, contrasting the focus of early US-based projects on a white male elite with the interest shown by a subsequent generation of British oral historians in recording the testimony of 'ordinary' working people. Rob emphasized the value of the lengthy 'life story' interview format in creating material that can avoid problems of decontextualization of the speakers' experience. His view is that this approach, when done well, yields material that could not be foreseen and would not be gleaned by an agenda-driven interview of the journalistic kind. Rob then discussed the various advantages and disadvantages of other kinds of interview: site-specific; group; and the two-stage general/specific approach. Elizabeth Wright, National Life Stories Project Worker on the Oral History of British Theatre Design currently in progress as a collaboration with Wimbledon College of Art, spoke about her experience as an interviewer. Almost all the theatre designers Elizabeth has approached have enthusiastically agreed to take part in the project, suggesting that the offer of a platform for one's own version of events is seen as a valuable opportunity. That the interviews are not edited and the words exist in their full original context can be a reassurance, especially to those with experience of being interviewed and wary of their words being made into journalistic sound bites. Elizabeth reiterated Rob's point about the way in which an unhurried chronologically based interview, in which discursiveness is nonetheless encouraged, can lead to the revealing of important details that the interviewer would not otherwise know to ask for. Elizabeth stated that she had no set of rigid questions and that each question was formulated as a response to the interviewee. Every interviewee she has spoken to has engaged differently with the process. Discussion followed on the close relationship that can develop between interviewer and interviewee and the potential difficulties that may arise, for example, when dealing with potentially upsetting subject matter. General discussion with Rob and Elizabeth followed, on ethics, on details of specific past and ongoing projects, on what makes a good oral history interviewer, and on practical matters such as technology (e.g. video or audio), creating summaries, transcription costs and funding for projects.
	Participants: Rob Perks, Elizabeth Wright, Steering Group, Erica Scourti