Stoke-on-Trent Libraries have a long standing commitment to reminiscence work of all types so being involved in the People's War project was a must for us.
We decided that to try to engage as many people as possible in the People's War, we would hold a drop-in session in each of our libraries across the city. Tea and biscuits are a must for any such session but other than that and staffing costs, no substantial costs have been incurred by the sessions.
At the time of writing we have held four out of our scheduled ten sessions. All have had a good response but some libraries have been exceptional. Each library has been supplied with publicity materials, official ´óÏó´«Ã½ posters and postcards and our in-house posters and fliers promoting the event (see below. Each library, in the week preceding their event, has also been supplied with a display and the staff have also put together collections of stock for people to browse through.
We have tried to encourage contributors to type in their own stories or indeed even to write their own stories down but, by and large, contributors have been more happy sitting with their biscuit and their cuppa chatting about their experiences whilst we furiously scribble down the details!
Adding to the database has been done often after the event but on some occasions by a colleague from The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery who has come along to support the event.
At the end of the event, we leave a list of people who have contributed to the event with the Library Manager. The manager is then informed when the story has appeared on the People's War site and when the contributor next visits the library they are invited to view the site and their contribution and are given and print out of their story.
After our final library session on May 26th we then move on to working in the community with a local "Live at Home " scheme and a sheltered housing complex.
We have now moved in to the second phase of our People's War project and are "rolling it out in to the community"! So far we have completed six sessions with community groups where basically we are conducting a reminiscence session using mainly the stories we have already collected and then inviting people to give us their stories. With bigger groups (some have been up to 50 people!) we have put together some collective group memories.
Phase Three we will hopefully see us inviting our HomeLink (housebound) Library Service users to take part and send stories in to us or when the occasion demands, send a librarian out to collect the story.
Do you have a
World War Two
story to tell?
GI Brides, air-raid shelter sing-songs
make do and mend…
The story does not have to be yours, it could be a tale which has been passed down through your family.
Come and share your story and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee with us on
Monday 19th April 2004, 10am - 3pm
at
Meir Library
Part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ "People's War" Project
Recommended story
Story with photo