Students in the Library and Information Science program are working with members of Mt.
Lebanon Village (MLV), an intergenerational network of volunteers who provide support to seniors enabling them to live in their own homes and stay connected to their community.
The students are developing the infrastructure for a model program that can be adapted by the other Villages throughout the US by digitizing oral history interviews with MLV members and developing metadata for the collection. The overarching goal of the project is to provide an archetype for oral history repositories deeply rooted in local communities .
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Create an enduring record of life experiences of the MLV community members
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Heighten cultural awareness of the growing
Village community movement
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Document local history and minutia from community ’s generation and perspective
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Capture the personal narratives of MLV members using digital video
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Create a digital repository for archival and research purposes
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Develop a working model for implementation at other Village organizations nationwide
An unlimited number of people will benefit from the ability to reminisce the past to having access to the rich history of the local area as told by MLV members. The audience includes but is not limited to:
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MLV member and their families
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Local residents and students
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Historians
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Volunteer Personnel
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Mt. Lebanon High School students
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LIS graduate students and faculty
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MLV administration
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Equipment
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Mt. Lebanon A/V department resources
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Equipment privately owned by volunteers
Develop and apply a metadata scheme in order to create an index of the subject material and allow for detailed searching of the digital video repository. In the interim, the digital video archive will be accessible to the public via social media applications such as
Facebook.
MLV's marvelous Margaret Bixler, going on 97 years old and still telling stories.
Nationally recognized, cutting-edge Mt.
Lebanon Librarian, Cynthia Richey.
Project by Brian K. Dawson and Michael Dziabiak; In association with Mr. Larry Evans, Mt. Lebanon Village; Sponsored by Drs. Susan Alman and Christinger Tomer, University of
Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences