Wagga city Library is calling on locals to be a part of editing history as they continue to contribute to the Amplify project, in conjunction with the State library of NSW.
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Amplify is an online platform designed to upload oral histories from various cultural institutions.
In 2018, libraries across the state were asked to enter for the chance to take part in the pilot program and Wagga's submission was accepted alongside four other libraries. And since then they have been working to upload and preserve audio histories into a digital format and deliver them online to the public for the first time, alongside machine-generated transcripts.
Wagga's entry was their oral histories of the 2012 Wagga floods and of the 2WG women's club, which were chosen because of the high quality of the interviews carried out by local historians.
Michael Scutti, the team leader of information, literacy and learning at Wagga City Library, said that Amplify can bring previously inaccessible oral histories, to history lovers everywhere.
"Anyone in the world can listen to [them]," he said. "Stuff that was previously locked away here, in this little room, in a local studies library in Wagga Wagga, is now available to anyone in the world."
The transcription software is imperfect, so anyone can go into the program and transcribe or correct the mistakes. Scutti said that the Wagga transcripts are 90 per cent complete and he is calling on people to get involved and get them to 100 per cent.
"The whole bag is getting the community involved in those local stories and correcting them as well, it's a community project basically," he said.
"When I listen to them, it's really compelling and time just flies by."
Wagga Wagga and District Historical Society President Geoff Burch said programs like Amplify are incredibly important for historians.
"It's a great concept," he said.
"They're another layer because they're oral recordings, people's interpretations of what happened. It's not just like reading newspapers and getting facts and figures and maps and plans. It's people thoughts and reminisces of those events. So, it adds another layer to any research you're doing, its very valuable."