Registration

Registration is now open for the IFLA Local History and Genealogy Section Workshop (Part 2): Something Old, Something New – using Social Media to engage with Local History (Part 2) .

IFLA’s Local History and Genealogy Section is hosting a virtual workshop highlighting innovative local history projects developed via social media channels. The presentations will relate to the theme of the IFLA World Library Information Congress 2022 – Inspire, Engage, Enable, and Connect.

This event will be held virtually on August 23 from 15:00 to 16:30 (Central European Time)  as part 2 of the two-day 2022 Virtual IFLA Local History and Genealogy Meeting.

Speakers

“From warzone to web: RealTimeWWII and storytelling on social media”

Alwyn Collinson
Digital Scholarship @ Oxford; Museum of London, Creator of @RealTimeWWII


Social media offers a unique opportunity for libraries, museums and other cultural and heritage organisations to engage audiences with the narratives behind their collections. We can challenge people’s preconceptions of what learning looks like by meeting people in digital spaces of their choice, and by sharing surprising, delightful or thought-provoking material in a new context. Alwyn Collinson (Digital Scholarship @ Oxford; Museum of London), creator of @RealTimeWWII, talks about eleven years of using Twitter to engage people with the events of the Second World War. Lessons from this long-running project include how to bring personal narratives from the archive to the screen, the value of crowdsourcing for content and engagement, and the challenges of addressing sensitive topics in 280 characters.

“Choose your own adventure with Flora Seville – an innovative storytelling experience on Twitter”

Cristina Roiu
Head, International Marketing Department, Library of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, Bucharest ,Romania


You are Flora Seville’ from the Egham Museum is an innovative Twitter experience following the fictional Flora Seville and illustrated with the museum’s collections. This engaging storytelling format was analysed by the members of Europeana Digital Storytelling Taskforce during their recent work, as an innovative example.

Following the story of fictional Flora Seville , readers feel immersed in the historical context in which Flora lived through the museum’s showcased collections.

“Digital Cultural Heritage: access & participation”

Medhavi Gandi
Digital Heritage Lab, India


In this presentation participants discover many examples of engaging cultural and local history projects developed via social media channels and learn about EmbraceDigital, a useful toolkit designed to help cultural professionals in their digital social media journeys.

“Connecting Descendants of Sailors’ Snug Harbor Mariners through Facebook and FindAGrave”

Renae Rapp   
Archivist at SUNY Maritime College, NY USA

Bruce Weir
founder and administrator of “Mariners of Sailors’ Snug Harbor History and Genealogy”  Facebook page and FindAGrave “Sailors’ Snug Harbor Cemetery” page, in Cincinnati, USA.

The Mariners of Sailors’ Snug Harbor History and Genealogy Facebook page creates a forum for descendants and researchers to share information about the ten thousand plus retired or injured mariners who, for some period of their lives, inhabited the retirement home residences and grounds of Sailors’ Snug Harbor, Staten Island, NY, during its years of operation 1833-1976.
Dedicated descendants of Sailors’ Snug Harbor Mariners and genealogists oversee the page. Additionally, these administrators maintain a FindAGrave.com Sailors’ Snug Harbor Cemeterypage linked to the Facebook page for fellow descendants and researchers to trace the final resting place of sailors at the Sailors’ Snug Harbor Cemetery.

“How librarians at Qatar National Library Adopt Non-Core Librarianship Skills to Engage with Users on Instagram”

Latifa Al-Amri
Information Service Librarian, Qatar National Library

Reem Al-Sada
Information Service Librarian,  Qatar National Library

Rapid changes in technologies meant that librarians needed to acquire non-core librarian skills, such as, following recent trends in social media and technology, photography, graphic design and content writing, in order to reach out and engage with Library users.
This presentation highlights the usage of non-core librarianship skills to increase social media engagement in the case of Qatar National Library’s Research and Learning Services Department Instagram account – QNL Engage.

Questions? Please contact Cristina Roiu at crissroiu(at)gmail.com.