QPL 125th Anniversary Stories Project
Queens Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
To celebrate its 125th anniversary, QPL is conducting a coordinated campaign to collect and share stories from staff and community members about QPL's role in their lives. They aim to tell the big story of the library’s history with thousands of little stories from every corner of Queens.
Challenge/Opportunity
Historic photos of library locations, staff, and customers are not stored in a unified manner across the enterprise. As a result of the initiative, previously undigitized archival materials were scanned, cataloged, and published in the library’s digital archives. This project involves reaching 1000+ staff members to encourage them to submit photos they have at their branches — and on their phones — to the submission forms online.
Key Elements of Innovation
The library created a microsite for their anniversary activities. The team collaborated with technology partner, Urban Archive, to populate an interactive map of Queens with images and stories from each of the library’s 65 locations. The Queens Memory team has created curated selections of historic photos and other assets on the Urban Archive map to tell specific stories such as a spotlight on the Carnegie libraries in the system.
Achieved Outcomes
So far, over 300 Queens residents have participated, and the goal is to collect the stories of many more of them.
To learn more, review QPL's online video collection here.