Preserving Life Stories with Project StoryKeeper

By Theresa Sangram

A new effort to record the life histories of aging Americans is underway at Project StoryKeeper. Currently, the project is focused on an array of specific issues including Alzheimer’s Disease, hospice care, African and Native American history, military veteran biographies, and memories of the Holocaust. Storytelling

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, one in eight Baby Boomers can expect to develop the disease. “That means that more and more family histories—and the richness they hold—will be slipping away if we don’t do something now to preserve them. We think Project StoryKeeper is a great way for families and caregivers of all ages to use the latest technology to keep family legacies going strong,” noted a representative of the association. Accordingly, the project has been targeted toward caregivers and community members who are ideally situated to collect and disseminate the life histories of older loved ones and acquaintances.

Project StoryKeeper’s mission is to help preserve family heritage by capturing and sharing life stories of our country’s older adults. The premise of the project targets the belief that everyone can benefit from the wealth of experience and wisdom found in each individual. The project developers have acted on this vision to provide an easy-to-use audio-biography tool to help everyone contribute to their mission of “preserving the past, enriching the present and strengthening the future—one story at a time.”

Project StoryKeeper’s online training program includes questions, interviewing techniques, and recording tips that will help discover personal histories of older adults at home or within care settings such as hospices, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes.

Dennis Stack, founder of Project StoryKeeper, hopes to train 10,000 volunteers to capture the stories of older generations. Stack says, “The more they tell their stories, the easier the stories become to tell, and they tell them better—more eloquently.” Stack offers these tips for interviewing:

• Keep the process simple to keep the storyteller comfortable.
• Know your equipment so that you are not fumbling with it. This will make them forget they are being recorded and just be themselves.
• Not everyone wants to be on camera.
• Really good stories cannot be told to a wall. Storytellers need to see, hear, and feel the reaction to their stories.
• When recording stories, keep it one-on-one. Too many people can make recording difficult.
• Keep interview segments around 30 to 45 minutes. It’s much better to have several short sessions than a couple of marathons.
• Schedule interviews one- to two-days apart. This will allow the storyteller to reminisce more deeply which makes each successive session more engaging.
• Don’t ask the deep-meaning questions too soon. Let the story develop and unfold.
• Keep the stories short—less than five minutes each. It’s easier to manage smaller audio files, so be ready to stop and start the recorder to mark each segment.

For more information, please see the Project StoryKeeper website: http://www.storykeeper.org

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