The funding will enable the British Library to digitise and make available half a million rare, unique and at risk sound recordings from its own archive and other key collections around the country.
Recordings include local dialects and accents, oral histories and previously unheard musical performances, plays and vanishing wildlife sounds.
The project is scheduled to take place from 2017 to 2022.
The British Library is also launching an outreach programme for schools and communities to celebrate the UK’s sound heritage and raise awareness archives across the country.
According to a recent directory of the UK’s sound collections gathered by the library, there are more than one million sound carriers on dozens of different formats which risk being lost unless they are digitally preserved in the next 15 years.
Roly Keating, chief executive of the British Library, said: ‘We are extremely grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for answering the urgent need to help preserve these precious recordings.
‘Our recent Living Knowledge vision is clear about the scale of the challenge ahead, but today's news is a fantastic vote of confidence in the project. We look forward to working with our partners across the UK to unlock this important part of our shared heritage, making it available to everyone online for research, enjoyment and inspiration.’
Stuart Hobley, head of Heritage Lottery Fund London, added: ‘Historic recordings have a unique quality of bringing into the present the events, sounds and voices from our past.
‘From regional dialects to the call of long extinct birds, Heritage Lottery Fund support will ensure that the most up-to-date digital expertise will be used to rescue some of the UK’s most vulnerable and rare sound recordings that would otherwise be lost to silence.’
Recordings include local dialects and accents, oral histories and previously unheard musical performances, plays and vanishing wildlife sounds.
The project is scheduled to take place from 2017 to 2022.
The British Library is also launching an outreach programme for schools and communities to celebrate the UK’s sound heritage and raise awareness archives across the country.
According to a recent directory of the UK’s sound collections gathered by the library, there are more than one million sound carriers on dozens of different formats which risk being lost unless they are digitally preserved in the next 15 years.
Roly Keating, chief executive of the British Library, said: ‘We are extremely grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for answering the urgent need to help preserve these precious recordings.
‘Our recent Living Knowledge vision is clear about the scale of the challenge ahead, but today's news is a fantastic vote of confidence in the project. We look forward to working with our partners across the UK to unlock this important part of our shared heritage, making it available to everyone online for research, enjoyment and inspiration.’
Stuart Hobley, head of Heritage Lottery Fund London, added: ‘Historic recordings have a unique quality of bringing into the present the events, sounds and voices from our past.
‘From regional dialects to the call of long extinct birds, Heritage Lottery Fund support will ensure that the most up-to-date digital expertise will be used to rescue some of the UK’s most vulnerable and rare sound recordings that would otherwise be lost to silence.’
