Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty digital collection – a history book provided by radio

BAAC CONFERENCE 2022 ABSTRACT

Zane Grosa
Head of Audiovisual Collection
National Library of Latvia

In 2016, the Audiovisual collection of the National Library of Latvia (NLL) received from the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University, USA more than 200 digital audio files, of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) Latvian Service recordings. The recordings were gifted to the NLL, in return for providing English language metadata to the Hoover.

The radio broadcasts were made mostly between the 1970s and 1990s. They reflect the political events and changes of the late 20th century in Latvia and the world, as well as cultural and social events in the Latvian diaspora, interviews with prominent cultural and political personalities, authors reading fragments from their books, and memories of experiences during Soviet occupation. The content of the recordings provides a rich source of information for study and research, not least because of the thorough description of each recording, made by the staff of the NLL, providing a summary of the content along with speakers’ names and dates, whenever it was possible. Creating the data about the collection was, in itself, not an easy task because of a scarcity of accompanying material. 

These Latvian Service recordings now form part of the audiovisual digital resources of the NLL: http://dom.lndb.lv/data/obj/70240.html , and are a valuable educational asset for those that seek to know more about historical and cultural life in the last quarter of the 20th century. The recordings are available to listen to from anywhere in the world, but are copyright protected.

In my presentation I will look in more detail at the creation of this digital collection, its content and ways of using and finding information in it.