By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Everyone has a story to tell, says Marnie Pratt, Wood County District Public Library’s local history librarian.
The library is ready to help local residents capture their stories by offering simple-to-use Family History Interview Kits. The kits have everything a person needs to start the process of recording oral histories, said Kristin Wetzel, information services coordinator at the library. A digital recorder with detailed written and visual instructions are included in the self-contained binder, along with a variety of questions to springboard possible topics to cover.
Local stories are the key to preserving local history, Pratt said. Personal experiences are an important way to help current family members and future generations know the stories that helped shape their relatives’ lives as well as the communities in which they lived.
There are many oral histories on file at the library already, Pratt said. Recordings of past mayors, library directors and other local residents have been collected since the 1980s. The stories from the mayors helped bring the city’s past to light, and listening to the previous library directors, including Helen Munsel and Marian Parker, demonstrated the foresight the directors had for the library, even decades ago.
“There are so many more stories to tell, but a lot of people think that their stories aren’t important, that their lives aren’t interesting enough,” Wetzel said.
But there are a lot of reasons to record stories, Pratt said. “They are a way to preserve the past to help future generations to know what life was like for family members business owners, teachers and others in our communities.
History is actually best found in the lives of ordinary people who lived it.
“Our job is often looking at the past, but truly, we are thinking about the future, and preserving the future through history,” she added.
Though the kits are named “Family History Interview Kits,” Wetzel encouraged people to record stories of neighbors, teachers, veterans, business owners, and others, whose stories are part of the fabric of Wood County. “What better way to get stories than to have community members involved,” Pratt said.
The recorded stories can be saved as an MP3 audio file via a USB port on the recorder file and be shared or given as gifts to family members and friends. Individuals also have the option of donating a copy of the file to the library for its local oral history collection, Pratt said.
Donating a copy to the library is not required, but it would be appreciated, Wetzel said. Individuals could even put a time restriction on when the file could be officially included in the collection available for the public, she added.
Three kits are currently available to be checked out for a week at a time from the second-floor information service desk at the Bowling Green library. Individuals must have a valid WCDPL library card to check out the kits. Library staff members are more than happy to answer questions or help if people are uncertain or unfamiliar with any of the technology or processes for the oral history kits. For more information, call 419-352-5050 or email woodref@wcdpl.org.
