Speakers: Mark Richardson, YA Librarian, Cedar Mill Community Library, Portland
Donna Bachowski, Orange County Library System, Orlando, FLA
The first part of the presentation covered the Cedar Mill Library's oral history project which featured a variety of people with immigrant stories to share. By using high school students as the interviewees, the project evolved into a learning experience for the students. Through the powerful narratives, the storytellers had a chance to teach them, too. The students learned that the Northwest was and is a destination for people seeking better lives.
The second part featured Orlando Memory, a community digital archive which was designed to connect residents and their shoebox of memories. Although the Orange County Library system had a tough time getting the program off the ground, it now hosts the popular site where people's "instant memories" are kept.
I learned that RCPL is very fortunate to have received the California of the Past digital storytelling grant. Why? Because we were supplied with excellent recording equipment and a place to post our digital stories. On the other hand, the speakers spent much of the program discussing the problems with the equipment they used and the trials and tribulations of trying to post their digital stories and podcasts to the web. They also had a really tough time with the editing piece and finally just gave up and posted the stories unedited. While this wasn't the most exciting program, it was interesting to learn what other libraries are doing.
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I agree, we are fortunate to have received a digital storytelling grant that included training, technical equipment, and a place to post our stories. The presenters who are from libraries in Oregon, and Florida, had to put together their own technical equipment through trial and error. It sounded like they spent a lot of time of this aspect of digital storytelling, and it was interesting to hear them say that they posted the stories unedited, not only was editing difficult, but by editing out pauses, etc...they lost the "character" of the participant. Here's the list of questions used by Orlando Memory to capture an instant story:
ReplyDelete1-Why did your family choose to move here.
2-What is the biggest change since you've been here.
3-What did you do for fun in high school.
4-What is one place you wish was still around and why.
5-What are your two favorite places today.
6-Say a 6 word memoir.
It was interesting to hear about other digital storytelling projects, I liked the Oregon project and the fact that it was linked to a state-wide reading program "Oregon Reads" (sounded similar to Big Read, One community/One book) and they tied in the book themes to digital stories. For example, immigration. High school students worked as volunteer interviewers, which was one of the best parts of their project. Teens were involved and had the opportunity to learn about history.