Among shelves, files and catalogs: listening to the work at Fundação Biblioteca Nacional

Abstract

The Oral History Collection Project of the Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (FBN) aims to record the memories of the institution's employees who are eligible for retirement. In order to provide an overview of the paths taken by the staff since they joined the FBN, discussions about the formation of the collections, the technical processes, and the hiring of staff during the civil-military dictatorship are compared with the Oral History methodology, as advocated by Marieta de Moraes Ferreira and Verena Alberti. In this article, while discussing the paths leading up to the FBN Oral History Collection Project, we will reflect on two interviews, from which we highlight the work relationships developed after the staff joined the institution, as well as the contributions left among the shelves, files, and catalogs: the staff’s participation in the development and preservation of the collections under their responsibility.