Formation and Perspectives of the Online Archives of Oral Historical and Visual Sources «Living History»

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the experience of accumulating, processing and archiving oral history and visual sources collected as part of the activities of a public organization. The process of accumulating a source base of the oral history of the 20th century by the research initiative «Local History» (Lviv) and the features of the integration of the collected materials in the digital archives «Living History» was outlined. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity, the application of general scientifi c methods of synthesis and systematic. Descriptive and problemchronological approaches, as well as methods of structural and functional analysis were used during the analysis of the construction principles and characteristics of the fi lling process and source base of the digital archives. The scientifi c novelty of the article lies in the fact that an innovative project on digital archiving of oral history data in combination with visual sources, which is implemented at the intersection of humanities and digital technologies in the fi eld of digital humanities, has been revealed. The online platform was created in early 2022 in cooperation with the «Local History» project, the Ukrainian-Polish-Slovak Borderland Research Center and the Faculty of Humanities of the Ukrainian Catholic University with the support of the Brody-Lev Perpetual Foundation and the Tymish and Genovefa Shevchuk Perpetual Foundation. The article analyzes the thematic spectrum of available oral history sources, criteria for systematization and grouping of empirical data, characterizes the capabilities of the system for searching for the necessary information, which is presented in the online archives. Conclusions. The prospects for the development of digital archives of oral history in Ukraine are outlined on the example of the implementation of the online platform «Living History». As an example of approbation, an example of integration into the digital archives of testimonies of victims and witnesses of the Russian occupation of Bucha district of Kyiv region in February-March 2022 is given. References: 1. Hela, O. M. (2020). Usnoistorychni kolektsii v ukrainskyh arkhivah i muzeiah Ukrainy [Oral history collections in Ukrainian archives and museums of Ukraine]. Vcheni zapysky Tavriiskoho natsionalnoho un-tu imeni V. I. Vernadskoho. Seriia: Istorychni nauku, 2, 1–4. [in Ukrainian]. https://doi.org/10.32838/2663-5984/2020/2.12. Hrinchenko, Р. H., Rebrova, I. V., Romanova, I. M. (2012). 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