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      The Our Town Library is concerned with preserving its citizen’s oral history for future generations.  It is also concerned with promoting literacy through the art of storytelling and providing ways and means for young adults to appreciate oral storytelling and to perfect the art themselves as a vital tool of knowledge.  Therefore, the Our Town Teen Librarian in partnership with the Our Town High School Teachers are proposing the collecting and preserving of oral history stories of our older citizens by our young adults.  Once collected these stories are preserved for perpetuity in the Our Town Library as resources for the future. 

The Our Town Teen Librarian would facilitate the whole process, increasing their hours to full time.  They would arrange for marketing, contacting storytellers, community groups for support, coordinating between the library, high school, and participating students.  The Teen Librarian would also be responsible for the preserving of these stories, which demand constant diligence to ensure their technical format is most current.

The Teen Librarian will have to remain focused and positive throughout the whole process, encouraging others when necessary, and being an excellent communicator throughout.  The Our Town Teen Librarian fulfills these requirements. 

The idea would be to: 

 -         Record community history through oral recollections by young adults interviewing older adults (55+) and then sharing these stories through storytelling events

-         Every third year, this process would be repeated to perpetuate and build the Our Town Library’s collection of oral stories as resources for the community’s cultural, economic and social history

-         Anticipated activities would be:

o       Four professional storytellers come and present both the art of storytelling plus personal stories in one day, two storytellers presenting in the afternoon at the high school and two presenting in the evening at the library

o       Two workshops are presented in the following two weeks for the community to learn how to ask the questions and then record the answers into a story, with the Teen Librarian, High School English, Social Studies and History teachers facilitating the event, but also using local community professionals

o       Twenty to twenty-five high school students will then go out into the community to gather stories, a one on one asking three specific questions.

o       Three Saturday workshops are presented at Our Town Library to help those who have collected stories turn them into oral presentations.

o       One extravaganza event culminating in the spring when the high school students will tell their collective stories at the library

 Each student is to ask the same three questions as a basis for making continuity between the stories and preserving specific stories that might resonate with future generations as they listen to these oral stories. In addition, it gives the high school students a focus in their interviewing process and gives meaning to the complexity of lives with the simplest of questions.  Eventually these three questions will span many life times, creating an oral storytelling history that is outstanding in community history, a connection of life’s experiences being the same for all generations.

 Every respondent will be encouraged to remember a story that corresponds to the age of the high school student who is asking the question, thereby creating more connection between the two participants. These questions are:                             

• What memories do you have of Thanksgiving and Fourth of July?

(These are national holidays not tied to any religious ideology, although that will probably come through in the answers) 

• What type of books, who was your favorite author, did you read when you were this age?

• What were a typical school day and a typical summer day that you had when you were this age?

 The goals of this community recording of oral history are simple in the gathering and complex in the long-term goal of people accessing the collected stories.  Through this process, there will be the subtle encouragement of literacy, the understanding and support for libraries within the community, the preserving of community history and the connecting of past life experiences to present life experiences.  

Specific goals that are measurable are:

            -         to involve 20 to 25 high school students in the storytelling gathering

-         to gather and record a minimum of 60 to100 stories in initial round

-         to create an ongoing collection of community stories that builds upon itself,  by repeating this process every three years

-         to share these new stories in storytelling events beyond the spring culmination event

-         to establish and lend these recorded stories to all who ask to borrow through the Library outreach

-         to encourage more connection with the Our Town Library and it’s community by increased use of facilities, student research and

-         surveys after opening storytelling event, spring culminating event and two years later assessing general attitude towards library, sense of connection to library and use of ongoing collection

 These goals will be documented through members, interviews, surveys and stories told after, but also in monetary and time support that is given to continue to grow the supply of stories and base of storytellers.  These goals are a good fit with the storytellers because they:

-         capture personal stories

-         bridge generations

-         connect people through stories

-         motivate library support

-         encourage intellectual growth

-         embrace oral history as important for future generations and literacy

 Although the Teen Librarian is the facilitator of this event, in conjunction with the Our Town High School Teachers, many more will be involved.  This is truly a community event, enhancing the connection of everyone to everyone else and the need to have everyone participate.  It is a wonderful way to connect the library to all the other community members, both individually and specific groups.

  Those involved would include:           

-         teachers and high school students

-         community groups for marketing, money and donations of food for group events

-         senior citizen groups for their memories

-     nursing home directors

-         local college for help in recording and preserving the storytelling events in current technological format, plus updating older versions as needed

-         library personal for support in research and encouragement as needed

-         professional story tellers

-         professional listeners, such as psychologists and social workers to teach these skills needed in collecting the stories

-         parent’s support

 This is a community project that spans lifetimes, creating bridges between generations and preserving the human story. It goes beyond facts to people who lived and created their own life stories.  By creating this storytelling event, and possible others in the future, it is the Our Town Library hope that these stories willed be told and retold for generations to come.  Creating a connection between community and the Our Town Library will also help to preserve the Library’s mission of freedom of information and promotion of literacy for all.  Please consider this proposal carefully.