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oral history

Talking Tales

Submitted by brussell on Wed, 2019-12-11 11:06

Storyteller in the middle of an audience, seated in a round

Talking Tales offers patrons an opportunity to experience the world’s oldest art form — oral storytelling — while also learning new things about cultures around the world.

The program begins with a local storytelling troupe, the East Texas Storytellers, telling tall tales, folktales, myths and legends. Many months are themed around a particular idea or country. After the stories, the storytellers and presenter explore their tales, their origins and the region they came from in a format similar to a Q&A or talk show.

Beyond Database Instruction: Genealogy Programs for Patrons

Magnifying glass

Library databases are wonderful places for patrons to begin their genealogical journey — but what happens when they’ve exhausted their Ancestry.com search? And what will they do with all of the information they’ve acquired? With so many national observances honoring heritage, it’s always a good time to offer programs that help patrons trace their roots and showcase their histories. Here are four ways you can empower your patrons to tell their stories through programming.

Podcasting To Preserve: Stories from the Bowen Building

Image text reads: Stories from the Bowen Building: A Podcast on the Peoria State Hospital by Alpha Park Library. An old black and white photograph of the hospital building is the background image.

Mackenzee Grzesiak, reference librarian at Alpha Park Public Library in Illinois, was watching HBO’s "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" when she connected her work on the library’s podcast to the episode’s coverage of America’s current mental health crisis.

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podcast
oral history
podcasting
local history
humanities
NEH
American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grants for Libraries
grant
humanities program
programming
program
local
community engagement

Black Bethlehem: Documenting the Black Experience in a Majority-White Town

Three side-by-side photos of archived images in the Black Bethlehem Project.

In 2013, Sharon King’s mother, Vivian W. Butts, got sick. With Sharon living in New York and her mother in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the close-knit Black community in Bethlehem rallied to take care of Vivian while Sharon was away.

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oral history project
oral history
virtual
pandemic
recording
local history
Black history
African American

Getting (Through) This Together: A Community-Based Archival Collaboration

Document your Story: COVID-19 Pandemic Project Archive brought together three community organizations to collect and preserve material created during COVID-19 from many different perspectives. This project has collected material from a variety of community members, such as local artists, diarists, the local business community, Muncie citizens, and Ball State University students, faculty and staff.

Evening Storytelling: The Moth Mainstage and Story Lounge

Woman speaking into microphone

An important function of our library is to provide a space for our community members to feel connected to one another and share their own stories with each other. Last fall, Princeton Public Library (PPL) focused our efforts on storytelling, highlighting the many ways that stories can be shared: poetry, memoirs, graphic novels, performance, quilting and more. 

ALA’s Sara Jaffarian Award Presents - Tales of the Crypt: Danville’s Living History Night

Tales of the Crypt: Living History Night brings back to life “gone and forgotten” persons of historical importance in their community and state. Through the cultural and historical preservation of an old cemetery, and by learning about the people interred there, students gather data and transform the information into a historical reenactment for an eventful night. Learn more about Tales of the Crypt.

Our Streets, Our Stories: A Brooklyn Neighborhood Oral History Project

Submitted by ediaz on Wed, 2016-04-27 12:47

Our Streets, Our Stories tabling event

Editor's note: To learn more about starting an oral history program, view this 60-minute webinar.

Our Streets, Our Stories is an ongoing oral history project housed in the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) Services for Older Adults within the Department of Outreach Services. We seek to explore the Brooklyn that is and the Brooklyn that was, from the words of the community that lives here.

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