By Huang Lijie
WHAT do you give Singapore for its 50th birthday?
Singaporeans may want to consider offering their memories of
life on the island.
The National Library Board aims to collect five million memories
to commemorate the occasion in 2015.
The project, Singapore Memory, was announced in Parliament
recently. Mr Gene Tan, the project's programme director, said
libraries, heritage agencies and research institutions will team up
to 'collect, preserve and provide access' to these memories - which
may be captured in print, audio and video. He said the project, to
be launched later this year, aims to 'strengthen a shared sense of
identity and heritage'.
The Oral History Centre, a department under the National
Archives, has been documenting the past since it was established in
1979.
Its five full-time oral historians conduct interviews with
people about their life experiences. They have logged almost 17,100
hours of interviews with 3,500 people in English, Malay, Tamil and
Chinese dialects.
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