Community Archiving at the 2026 Maker Fair!
I’ve been talking for the last couple of months about the Farmington Room’s participation in our annual Maker Fair, so here I am one last time with more about the event!
New preservation kits
We have developed two kits that will be added to our Library of Things collection, that you can borrow for one week at a time, to gather stories and preserve memories.
Scanning Kit: The Scanning Kit includes a flatbed scanner for photographs and documents, instructions, a connecting cable, scanner instructions, and a brief overview of suggestions for preserving and organizing your physical and digital images.
Recording Kit: The Recording Kit contains a small digital recorder, a windscreen, a lavalier mic, connecting cables, instructions, a table stand for the recorder, and a set of interview tips and questions.
Volunteers will be in the Farmington Room showing visitors how to use the kits. These will become available to borrow starting Monday, March 23. 2026.
My Town, My Story
My Town, My Story is a participatory archiving platform created by the CT Digital Archive (CTDA) that allows community members to share their images, text, videos, and audio recordings without donating the actual materials; the contributor retains the original item (known as a non-custodial arrangement). The contributions undergo a review by both the CTDA and Farmington Library staff, then if accepted, they will be added to the library’s digital collection. A volunteer will be doing demonstrations on how to use the platform. Similar community projects already on the CTDA are Oral Histories and Pandemic: COVID-19 in Farmington. Take a look!
Record or write your story at Maker Fair
If you want to tell us a story, we are making recordings in our work room. We’ll have open-ended questions to spark memories. These will be zoom-style video recordings made through TheirStory, an oral history platform we’ve been able to use through the University of Connecticut.
If you want to tell a story but are camera shy, write it out! We’ll have sheets with writing prompts for text-based contributions.
Contributing to a publicly accessible resource
You may be wondering...where is my story going exactly? How will it be used and by whom? Logistically, after the event, we’ll be scanning the written stories and reviewing them for adding to our online, publicly accessible digital collection on the CT Digital Archive (CTDA). Oral history interviews will be transcribed. We’ll generate the necessary metadata for uploading to the CTDA. The process should take about 2-4 weeks.
One important element to expect when sharing your story is giving the library permission to make your contribution public, and to use it for research, exhibits, and more. Reading and signing a release form is part of the process of sharing your story and giving the library the right to use, copy, and share it.
If you just want to take it all in, look at the exhibits and the scrapbook reproductions, and think about sharing at a later date, take a brochure home with you and keep an eye on our newsletter—this is only the beginning of our community archiving journey here in the Farmington Room.
Volunteers needed
We still need a few volunteers for this event—are you tech-savvy? Are you outgoing and like talking to people? Let me know! Email me at jneely@farmingtonlibraries.org, or call me at 860-673-6791 x5213.
Many thanks and hope to see you at Maker Fair!
Happy researching,
Jerusha