In collaboration with the Southland Oral History Project the Gore District Library is capturing the stories and its people through oral records.
Gore District Library assistant and library community engagement staff Karen Bellew said there was a rich history in the district and a lot of interesting people with stories to tell.
"The oral history recording of local people has just quietened off over the years," Ms Bellew said.
The project aimed to gather stories that reflected the district’s everyday way of life and traditions, she said.
The success of the project relied on the work of volunteers, she said.
"We’ve got some training lined up for people because we would like to kick this off again with new people who might like to be involved in the different aspects of recording local history."
The different aspects were recording, abstracting and editing the information, she said.
People who were interested in volunteering for the project would be trained on how to use the recording equipment and could record wherever they felt comfortable, generally in their home, she said.
She hoped people of all ages could become involved.
"There’s a lot of people who we feel would have a great piece of a story to tell.
"It’s not as daunting of a task as people may think."
The plan was to get access to old recordings and create new ones and make them available at the Gore District Library, she said.
Gore Genealogy Society president Elaine Scott said this project was a wonderful way of keeping family history alive.
"Often we don’t hear about someone’s earlier life or working life and that’s something that might come out in a recording," Ms Scott said.
Oral history and content digitisation specialist Rosie Stather will be presenting information on what training is involved to become part of the project next Wednesday.
The presentation will be at the Gore District Library at 6pm.
