The British Library has started to publish some content from it moving image collections online on its YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/britishlibrary.

National Life Stories is creating a major archive for the study and public understanding of contemporary science in Britain through a new oral history fieldwork programme, An Oral History of British Science (http://www.bl.uk/historyofscience). The programme involves 200 in-depth life story interviews with British scientists, averaging 10 – 15 hours in length. Some shorter video recordings, reflecting key events or locations, will also be carried out for the project. In the following video clip, filmed at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, Dr Joseph Farman discusses the Dobson ozone spectrometer (for the interviews with Farman see those referenced under C1372/07 on the Sound & Moving Image Catalogue: http://cadensa.bl.uk).

The World and Traditional Music section of the British Library holds a unique collection of South Asian material recorded by Dutch ethnomusicologist Dr Arnold Adriaan Bake (1899-1963). This collection spans not only many decades but also many formats of audio and visual material including wax cylinders, tefi-bands, open reel tapes and 16mm black and white and colour silent films, providing a complex and detailed document of music and ritual in South Asia from the 1930s to the late 1950s.

These edited highlights illustrate the importance of ritual in Nepalese life. The Matayaa festival celebrates family ancestors with offerings at shrines. Musicians and devotees circumambulate the town making offerings.

Catalogue links:
C52 Arnold Adriaan Bake Archive — http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=CKEY1801509
Film: C52/FO/61 C1 http://cadensa.bl.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=CKEY7483575

For further examples, visit: www.youtube.com/user/britishlibrary.