Nashville Public Library To Host StoryBooth, Part of StoryCorps

Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 8/30/2007

From October 2007 through September 2008, Nashville Public Library (NPL) will be the site of a National Public Radio (NPR)/Library of Congress (LC) StoryBooth, which will record the memories of everyday Americans for NPR broadcast and LC archives. StoryCorps has requested that NPL reserve at least 25 percent of the appointments for "populations outside the NPR demographic," NPL spokesperson Deanna Larson said, for a closer match to the entire service population.

The StoryBooth launches along with NPL’s new multimedia Special Collections Center (SCC) on October 6 with an open house and special presentation by Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps. The SCC will hold interviews conducted for LC’s Veteran’s History Project and NPL’s Civil Rights Collection, and the space will have two permanent booths for oral history interviews. Both the SCC and StoryBooth are funded by the NPL Foundation. Anyone can record stories and family history with the help of a trained StoryCorps facilitator. Participants get a CD of the 40-minute interview to keep. The service will be promoted at the many oral history-themed events scheduled this October and November. Another StoryBooth is located at the Milwaukee Public Library.