WKU News

The Kentucky Folklife Program, in partnership with the Kentucky Museum and WKU Library Special Collections, will host Community Heritage Day: Digitizing Your Story from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 4 at the Kentucky Museum.

The event is free and open to public. We invite you to share a part of your family’s story and learn how to protect your community’s memories.

For this event, all community members are encouraged to bring in their photographs, documents or artifacts (a maximum of five) to be documented and digitized by Kentucky Museum and WKU Library Special Collections professional staff and volunteers. Participants will leave with their digital materials uploaded to a USB thumb drive to take home free of cost (while supplies last), along with advice on how to best store their items so that they might be preserved in the long-term. With your permission, copies will also be included in WKU’s Folklife Archive.

In addition to the free digitization, Community Heritage Day will include talks from Sarah M. Schmitt, Director of the Kentucky Oral History Commission, and Maria Lewis, Library Assistant at WKU’s Library Special Collections. There will also be an “Ask an Archivist” booth set up for participants to get advice for storing and saving precious objects and memories. During this event, community members may tour the Kentucky Museum’s exhibits with special free admission.

This program is funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage Grant.

Community Heritage Day schedule

• 9 a.m.-noon: Three digitization stations open for digitizing your story
• Noon-1 p.m.: Learn how to document and research your family’s oral histories with Sarah M. Schmitt, Kentucky Oral History Commission, and Maria Lewis, WKU Library Special Collection
• 1-4 p.m.: Three digitization stations open for digitizing your story
• 1-3 p.m.: “Ask an Archivist” booth open – stop by to get advice for storing and saving all your precious objects and memories

Contact: Kentucky Folklife Program, (270) 745-4133 or kyfolklife@wku.edu