In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of oral history projects dedicated to collecting the memories of scientists and technologists and a significant expansion in geographical coverage, taking it beyond the initial stronghold of the United States where much of the early activity was concentrated. At the same time the advent of the internet has raised the possibility of making these and existing collections more widely accessible. In addition, pressures on the academic community to engage more effectively with the public have highlighted the potential of oral history collections as resources around which this engagement can be built. The aim of this symposium is to bring together scholars from a range of nations, projects and institutional backgrounds to consider both the practical issues that they have faced when collecting, archiving, and disseminating oral history material and the methodological challenges and opportunities that oral history presents to historians of science and technology. This will enable participants to explore common issues as well as identifying those which affect individual national contexts. Key aims of the symposium are the sharing of knowledge on best-practice and to provide a supportive network of contact for those seeking to establish their own projects as well as enabling scholars to draw the attention of a broad international audience to their projects.

This symposium addresses the conference theme in a number of ways. It will consider oral history as a key tool which can enable historians of recent science to shed light on the creation, dissemination and deployment of knowledge, capturing aspects of knowledge at work that are not always accessible in written records. It will also discuss ways in which knowledge of the history of science and technology is put to work in a range of settings, including digital media.