AN oral history of the North-East held in a museum's collection is being transferred to a digital format to ensure it is preserved for posterity.

The work, which includes creating a central database for the region's spoken heritage, is being overseen by oral history project co-ordinator Jo Bath.

Ms Bath, who has an 18-month contract at Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, said the project would make it easier for researchers to find material and make it more accessible to members of the public.

She said: "Beamish Museum's own oral history archive has about 600 tapes of recordings.

"I will be making digital copies, partly to create an archive for the future and to increase material's longevity - but also to make it more available through computers here.

"Listening to the recordings is different from reading about something. You can hear people talking about their past.

"They may be recalling their childhood, the lives of their parents or family memories. It's all terribly personal. We have recordings going back to the early 1970s, with memories stretching back to 1880s."

She added: "There is a tremendous interest in oral history at the moment, with a number of groups doing oral history projects."

Ms Bath's role is funded by the museum and North-East Museums Archives and Libraries Council.

She has written to 200 individuals and organisations that keep oral histories, and invites anyone able to help to contact her on 0191-370 4028.