University of Southern Maine

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USM Life Story Center Launches Interactive Web Site

June 26, 2008

University of Southern Maine Professor Bob Atkinson believes that everyone has an important life story to tell and, in fact, years ago established the Life Story Center to give people the chance to tell and document their stories. Today, the Center has an archive of more than 400 such stories.   

Now, the Life Story Center has launched an interactive Web site designed to help people of all ages and backgrounds preserve their life stories for generations to come. (http://usm.maine.edu/olli/national/lifestorycenter/).

"People everywhere," said Atkinson "can now help create the world’s largest online life story archive." The site already has most of the stories which were recorded and documented as part of the Life Story Center.

USM's Life Story Center is part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) National Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine, serving more than 70,000 OLLI members around the country. The Life Story Center’s new interactive Web site and archive is available for public use, as well.

Supported by funding from a Maine Technology Institute Seed Grant, the Center’s Web site features a proven methodology for telling life stories and a fully searchable life story archive. An easy-to-use format guides users through the steps of telling life stories and then how to contribute the stories to the archive. "This technology, which can also be used to connect with faraway family members, brings the age-old tradition of storytelling into the digital age and places it at the center of an online community transcending cultural and geographic boundaries," said Atkinson.

Atkinson, a professor of education and human resource development in USM's College of Education and Human Development, is the author, co-author, or editor of six books, including, "The Beat of My Drum: An Autobiography,” with Babatunde Olatunji (Temple University Press, 2005); "The Life Story Interview” (Sage, 1998); and "The Gift of Stories: Practical and Spiritual Applications of Autobiography, Life Stories, and Personal Mythmaking” (Greenwood, 1995). 

For more information, contact Atkinson, at 207-780-5078, or lifestorycenter@usm.maine.edu.

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