The virtual museum Sound Archives – European Memories of the Gulag operates on the same lines as a review: a room is considered to be like a scholarly publication and is vetted by the museum editorial committee, comprising the project team and two outside referees.
But it is a publication combining audio or video extracts of testimony, period documents, personal documents, short commentaries, more detailed texts, archive documents.
We invite researchers who wish to submit a room (as they would submit an article) to send us their room suggestion on the form provided. It will be submitted to the museum editorial committee and two external referees. If the room is accepted, it will be published in the museum, with the names, naturally, of its author or authors.
A room must contain
1. The name of the room’s author(s) with a short biography, organisational affiliation and main publications. This information is to be entered in the “Comments” box of the suggestion form.
2. The name of the room
3. A presentation text of no more than 1,200 characters (this will appear in the left-hand column of the room)
4. A collection of media, images, texts or audio.
Audio interview extracts or other audio media. These must be of good quality, preferably in wave, mp3 or ogg files. The sound media should not exceed 4 or 5 minutes at the most and be supplied in their original language, with preferably a written translation in English or French, or, failing that, a transcript. They should be accompanied with copyright transfer form. Details should be given in a separate file of the date of the interview, place of interview, short biography of the interviewee, names of the interviewee, interviewer and others present at the interview. It is essential to complete and enclose a personal or general authorisation to publish the interviews. We can supply the relevant form if required. All other audio documents must be described and free of copyright.
Where appropriate, the full interview for the archives, accompanied if possible by a log of the various stages of the interview (time codes and descriptions of topics).
Video extracts (same conditions as for audio extracts)
Text media for the “More information” heading in the room. The text may be longer (not exceeding 30,000 character), together with an abstract.
Archive documents to support the room, accompanied by commentaries (the archive documents must be free of copyright and supplied as images or text). The image media should be assembled in thematic slide shows. Each image must be documented: copyright, title, other details. They must be accompanied by a copyright transfer form or a document certifying that the documents are free of copyright. Each slide show (set of images) should be accompanied by a text not exceeding 1,200 characters. The image media and audio to illustrate the room should be identified.
Preferred organisation for the room.
A bibliography.
To submit your suggestion, we would prefer you to send it on the relevant form. In the case of bulky documents, you may go through an exchange server.
If you or your older relatives witnessed these deportations, we will collect personal documents that belong to this history on condition they are properly labelled and annotated, the copyright-holders provide an authorisation to publish, and a biography and detailed story of the person concerned is supplied.
To send us these documents, please use the relevant form. Failing that, you can send them by exchange server or CD-ROM. Photocopies are also accepted, by mail to the following address:
