Internship Week 9

This week was relatively mellow on the CPL front. (I've been catching up on my e-portfolio, mostly.) The new topic I'm researching is digital storytelling, and I logged 4 hours last week and 8 hours so far this week doing the research and outlining the report.

The topic is diverse, including possible activities such as:

• oral history
• flannel-boarding
• audio read-aloud
• videography
• dramatization

Many of these topics would be suitable for YA services combining education with technology. Library staff could teach skills like video editing and narrative structure in workshops year-round or as part of the summer learning program. Digital storytelling can be very simple (a camera, a person, an anecdote) or quite sophisticated, depending on the circumstances and the desires of the participants.

Berkeley has its own Center for Digital Storytelling that is pioneering its Storylab program as a collaborative effort uniting readers, storytellers, and the general public for community organizing and civic engagement. You can take a digital storytelling workshop (in multiple U.S. locations) to learn helpful techniques for crafting your stories and technical skills with common video-making tools.

Libraries in the state of California are participating in a grant-funded oral history program called "California of the Past". Of course, I'll be looking at programs closer to Chicago, but the resources from this one have been very helpful so far.

80 hours out of 135