California of the Past Digital Storytelling Project
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This collection of 24 digital stories documents the experiences of people coming to and living in Monterey Park and in California. The stories feature three topics of people, places and events. Highlights include stories about local theatre productions and plays, family stories about immigrating to the United States and to Monterey Park, stories from local artists and authors, the establishment of East Los Angeles Community College, and general experiences in the community. Anyone with access to the Internet can watch this collection of digital stories. Digital stories were recorded in the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library and in the local community. Storytellers contributed photographs and videos from their personal collections to create these miniature 2-5 minute films highlighting their experiences. |
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Please click on the images below to view stories from our digital storytellers: |
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"Live Theatre in Monterey Park" by Cici Lau
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"Multiculturalism in Art" by Tianne Kimoto |
"Growing up in the Walker Family" by Beryl Williams |
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"Monterey Park Art Installation" by Ricardo Mendoza |
"English Only" by Annette Lee |
"Nancy Kwan's Biggest Fan" by Cindy Yee |
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"The Monterey Park Historical Museum" by Beryl Williams |
"Southern Fried Rice" by John Jung |
"Laura Scudder" by Pauline Lemire |
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"Coming to America" by Nancy Yee |
"My Hollywood Career" by Nancy Yee |
"Library Supporter and Reading Advocate" by Norman Jaffe |
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"Family Stories from the Mexican Revolution" by Louie Morales
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"Honorary Grand Marshall of Monterey Park" by Gloria Guerrero
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"Chinese American Citizens Alliance" by Winston Wu |
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"Japanese American Farmers during World War II" by Beryl Williams
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"The History of East Los Angeles College" by Earnest Moreno |
"Community Kinship" by Steve Wong and Mike Truong |
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"Butterflies in Flight" by Shirley Huang Batman (English) |
"Butterflies in Flight" by Shirley Huang Batman (Mandarin) |
"Portraits of Dancers" by Martha Mejia |
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"Local photographer Enrique Armendariz" (English) |
"Fotógrafo Enrique Armendariz" (Spanish) |
"Photographing the San Gabriel Mission" by Jennifer Castro |
Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library was selected in 2010 to be a participant in the California of the Past: Digital Storytelling Grant Program. This project is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. The goal of the California of the Past: Digital Storytelling Grant Program is to promote intergenerational sharing of stories of California, provide library staff with digital storytelling program skills, create a statewide history resource of life in California, and encourage partnerships between the library and community.
Twenty-four stories have been recorded using the Digital Storytelling Station. Each story was edited with media (video, photographs, music) provided by either the storytellers, or available in the public domain. The stories are then loaded to Blip.tv where they are available to the general public via the Internet. A DVD copy of the stories is also available in three volumes at the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library and the individual storytellers receive copies of their videos. The library is committed to producing further stories over the next few years to expand this initial collection.
Interested in creating digital stories? Learn more about digital storytelling on the Prairienet Community Network from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This website includes an introduction to digital storytelling and its importance, the process of storytelling, creating a digital story, archiving digital stories and managing a digital storytelling project.