Electronic libraries: “Istanbul Reminiscences” multimedia archive of oral history goes online

A project archiving a number of oral histories portraying periods of Istanbul’s social, cultural and economic transformation within the last 60-70 years has been completed.

With support from the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Cultural Heritage and Museums Directorate, 800 records of oral history registered in the archive of the History Foundation have been decoded and preserved in a virtual environment. Within the scope of the project, the visual and auditory data base in the virtual environment aims to enable everyone to access the stories about the city’s historical richness and cultural variety, protecting them for future generations.

The project is expected to become a resource for research into Istanbul’s history, as well as Turkish history, and pave the way for the preparation of exhibitions, publications and documentaries.

The website prepared for the project features life stories from Istanbul, as well as themes reflecting Istanbul’s cultural, social, economic and spatial dimensions. It also hosts 475 video clips depicting the city. The visual and auditory archive formed within the scope of the project will be open to users in the History Foundation Information-Document Center.