Speaker: Elizabeth Goldman, The Black River Group
It all started with a potato. From 1920-1960, the farmlands in Michigan were dotted with hundreds of one-room schoolhouses and there are many people who went to school there. Every morning, these students would take a potato to school and the teachers would put them in the pot belly stoves to cook. By lunchtime, the potatoes were done and everyone had a baked potato for lunch. This shared memory led the Chelsea (Michigan) Library (2008 Best Small Library in America) to join forces with the local senior center to create a documentary about it. Key pieces that made it happen:
-established relationship with senior center
-an identified need
-established record of grant funding
-big imaginations
-willingness to take risks
Why is this important?
-advocacy at a grassroots level
-share workload and expertise
-libraries need to prove they are innovative and deeply committed to their community
-also that they are essential to the success of their community
As we know, the senior population is changing and it's time for libraries to rethink how they provide services to them. Projects such as oral history programs offer ways for libraries to reach out to seniors through engaging and mentally stimulating ways. We need to be responsive and adaptive to the special needs of seniors.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I wish I had gone to this workshop! Our senior community is growing, and I'm sure there are some great seniors in town who would be good subjects for the digital storytelling project.
ReplyDelete