The Rochester Public Library is partnering with the StoryCorps project to help gather oral histories under a pilot program.
You may have heard StoryCorps segments on WXXI through NPR. StoryCorps is also partnering with some libraries, and in Rochester, City Historian Christine Ridarsky says the local effort will involve the library staff gathering interviews with recent immigrants.
"What I really like to focus on and I think what's really important for the community in terms of understanding the community and the rich history here is to really look at the diversity within the community and Rochester is so diverse and so if we don't capture these stories they may be lost forever."
StoryCorps will help train local library employees and provide some equipment for them to use.
Ridarsky says the upcoming interviews will be available for listening at the Central Library and will eventually be online as well. They will also be sent to the Library of Congress and become part of the StoryCorps collection there.
The oral histories will be collected from June through October at the Central Library downtown, as well as at the Maplewood Branch and other city libraries.
