StoryLines New England

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Possible Program Activities

"StoryLines New England" offers many opportunities for related library programming.

A few examples:

  1. Hold a panel discussion or ask individual speakers to address issues related to your region before and/or after each radio program. Encourage participants to listen and call-in to the programs.

  2. Seek a grant from your state humanities council or other funder to bring scholars to the library to discuss issues raised by the "StoryLines" programs or to discuss other regional books not included in the radio series; or seek a grant to buy extra books from the "StoryLines New England" book list.

  3. Work with school librarians and teachers to incorporate the series into junior or senior high school curricula.

  4. Explore the various interpretations of the region and/or interpretations of books from the series in motion pictures and hold a film viewing and discussion about the similarities/differences. Compare the motion picture depictions with the books.

  5. Find series author biographies and reviews from the period of some of the earliest books in the series. Exhibit early newspaper editorial cartoons, advertisements and photographs that show what the region was like and what people were thinking during various historical periods.

  6. Develop a local writing contest for students and adults about what is unique about their region and their reasons for living there. Offer prizes, publicize the event and the results.

  7. Ask the seniors in the community to talk about their early years in the region and how it has changed since then. Videotape or audiotape the talks and offer them to library patrons.

  8. Set up a radio in the library (particularly if your radio station is going to broadcast the series on tape during the week, rather than live on Sunday) and invite patrons to listen to the series there, with a discussion period after.

  9. Use the books from "StoryLines New England" as the focus for a series of discussion programs in the library after the radio series ends.

  10. Start your own regional book discussion series using a list of your choosing.