Library Links

An update on the Brooklyn Collection's wonderful  Our Streets, Our Stories preservation project (Brooklynology)

From an earlier announcement, explaining the project:

Our Streets Our Stories has a simple objective: to provide community members with the tools and technology to share their Brooklyn memorabilia and culture heritage materials with the world. Many items that can help tell Brooklyn’s story are sitting forgotten in apartments and basements all over the borough, being lost due to improper storage conditions and neglect. We want to encourage patrons to dig out these items and bring them to the library. We're looking for materials like photographs, fliers and documents from Brooklyn families, businesses, block parties, community organizations, and anything else that tells the story of Brooklyn. 
What makes this project different is that we're not looking to keep your items, just a digital copy. Here's how the project will work: Focusing on one neighborhood each month, we bring a mobile digitization lab (scanner, laptop and camera) to library branches and invite neighbors to bring in these items. Patrons don’t need any technical background; all scanning will be handled by us and our volunteers. Once digitized, all items will be returned to the patron, including a flash drive with digital copies. Patrons will also be invited to share copies with the Digital Public Library of America and on BPL’s own digital catalog. 
Our Streets Our Stories isn't just about digital preservation. We want community members to be active participants in the effort to shape Brooklyn's history. By contributing and sharing materials they are choosing how their neighborhood will be represented and remembered, playing an important role in the democratization of culture heritage. This is a great opportunity to meet neighbors, share stories and engage with local history in a unique way.

Eric and Farrah Lafontant - Flatbush, 1979  (Brooklyn Public Library)


And from Brooklyn Connections, here are professional learning materials for a visit to Green-Wood Cemetery.  If there are any teachers out there who haven't taken advantage of the free, BPL Connections workshops, I highly recommend them.  There's also a Connections workshop for parents coming up, on November 23, at Grand Army Plaza.  Sign up here.