Journal Article

OurStoryBridge: Engaging Folklore in the Digital Age

Huntley, Jeryy, Schwartz, Janelle A

2021

Overview

Sponsored by the Keene Valley Library, Adirondack Community is an ongoing local story project that collects and organizes audio stories and related photographs from Town of Keene community members through an online platform. Since the project's launch on June 15, 2019, to the time of this article's writing, online access remains free to its over 225 posted stories and 18 curated podcasts, with more being added regularly. After a lifetime of volunteer work, intermingled with heavy family and career responsibilities-including work in the New York State Assembly and the US House of Representatives-as well as early career work as a school librarian and teacher in New York, Huntley found that her energy and skills would best serve our Keene Valley Library by providing fundraising assistance as a volunteer for their Capital Campaign. Like many rural areas across the country, the small towns and hamlets and villages of the Adirondacks (Keene included) suffer a twofold challenge: on the one hand, we continue to experience population declines among the younger generations due, in part, to a perceived lack of opportunities and a very real dearth of civic resources, such as affordable housing, childcare, and reliable internet connectivity. (Owen 2019) Stories were a community affair, told at home after sundown around a wood stove, neighbors sitting in favorite chairs with their lanterns hanging on pegs outside the front door.

• Publisher: New York Folklore Society
• Subject: Archives & records / Banks, Russell (1940-2023) / Community / Folklore / Genocide / Internet / Libraries / Occupations / Oral history / Refugees, Rwandan / Rural areas / Storytelling