About the Atwater Library Living History Collection

Beginnings:

From June 2017 to March 31, 2018, with funding from the the New Horizons for Seniors program, the Atwater Library and Computer Centre conducted a project supporting a diversity of seniors to tell, record and share their stories. Working with a variety of seniors-serving groups and a wide range of senior volunteer participants, mostly members of Quebec’s official-language minority population, as well as members of the deaf community, the Atwater Library Living History Collection is available in multi-media formats and is available with access to all through digital media channels. It is permanently based in the Atwater Library heritage building, where traditional and cutting-edge technology coexist and the initial project’s legacy is ongoing, and ever-evolving.

The project brought together seniors, as well as students from Concordia University, and others to allow for good intergenerational collaboration and inspired creative storytelling, documentary making and dissemination. It also facilitated the senior participants’ use of digital technology, which allowed them to capture stories with video and sound and to categorize them with multiple access points, so that the Seniors Living History Collection will now have many applications, today and in the future. For example, the Collection can be a tool for researching neighbourhoods, career paths and different types of life experiences. 

Growth:

“Aging is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength” so said author and feminist Betty Frieden in her 1993 book “The Fountain of Age”. We would like to add to her wise words…that it is also a new stage of growth. The Living History Project along with all the myriad activities and learning opportunities at the Atwater Library Digital Media Lab headed by Community Outreach Librarian extraordinaire Eric Craven and invited guests offers the motley crew of seniors, students, university professors, filmmakers, advisors, and whoever else drops in and decides to stay and to get involved, an amazing opportunity for growth.

Check back frequently for new interviews and stories!

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