Leicester Oral History Archive

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s):

Title: Leicester Oral History Archive

Date(s): 1983 - 1990

Level of description: Fonds

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 500

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Oral History Archive

Administrative/Biographical history: The Leicester Oral History Archive was launched in 1983, primarily by BBC Radio Leicester. Ned Newitt was the founder and first Director. The Archives was first funded by the Manpower Services Commission (1984) before being funded by the Chamber of Commerce's Community Programme Agency. The Archive also received support from the Education Department, Libraries and Information, and Museums, Arts and Record Services, particularly in the form of staff representatives from the Libraries, Museums, and the Record Office on the Leicester Oral History Archive's governing committee. Due to local government changes, the project Archives closed in 1990

The money that had been allocated was used to fund the 'Coming to Leicestershire' project - a two year oral history study of migration to the county of Black and Asian groups since the Second World War and the production of a film on African-Caribbean people in Leicester undertaken by the Leicester United Caribbean Association (LUCA). Some of the funds went to the development of the Leicestershire Multicultural Archive Project.

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: The collection comprises 500 taped interviews covering a very wide range of subjects. Of these, 5% are fully transcribed, while the remaining 95% are all summarised in detail, indexed and cross-referenced. Key indexing terms include: Ethnic minorities, education (discipline), community organisations, religious and cultural life, discrimination, employment, entry into the UK and housing.

The people interviewed included those from Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, and Jamaica. The collection also contains 1200 copy negatives of photographs of the city, gathered when an appeal was made to the public for historic photographs of Leicestershire. The majority of these images are copies taken from local collections and from the Leicester Mercury Newspaper.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement:

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Closed access

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: Printed catalogues

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note: This record was completed and indexed June 2002 MR

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:

Interest: Black

Specific group:

Subjects

Housing

Immigration

Discrimination

Cultural life

Community organisations

Education

Photographs

Ethnic groups

Oral history

Personal/Corporate names

Leicestershire Multicultural Archive Project

Leicester United Caribbean Association

'Coming to Leicestershire' project

Leicester Mercury Newspaper

Places

Leicester, United Kingdom