A Listening Station is perfect for interviewing

Dear friends and colleagues, We would like to introduce the Listening Station, an all-in-one kit, integrated with a custom designed app, that allows your organization, classroom, professional or personal project to capture and deliver recorded files with a click, using a cloud-based archiving system managed by StoryCenter. The Listening Station is an evolving interview and oral history platform, designed for community-based, low cost production, management and archiving of video and audio recordings. Over the last year, StoryCenter worked with the California State Library to prototype the tool with a number of public libraries around the state. We worked with the libraries to carry out story capture days, and to develop techniques for recruitment, preparation, interview questions, ideal recording settings and formats, and follow-up. The Listening Station has proven easy to use and tremendously effective.  The station is designed as a public kiosk for people to share stories with a listener, hold a conversation, or be part of an interview. The station includes prompts, sample stories for ideas, and audio or video recording. What makes the app unique is that it automates the upload and delivery of files to participating organizations and storytellers. We're also working to integrate the metadata collection, registration, release and transcription processes into the app, making it a state-of-the-art tool for gathering primary source material for documentary projects. We invite you to become a member of the Listening Station Network. Working with academic, library, humanities, museum, and other community-based organizations, we are planning to create a network of Listening Station users who agree to building shared collections. Our hope is to coordinate national and international projects on shared themes, from the stories of immigrants, to women's rights advocates, veterans, those affected by violence and human rights abuses, or any range of topics. The collections would allow for researchers, documentary makers, organizers, and advocates to have access to testimonies and narratives on these themes. We are offering two levels of the Listening Station: with service to support you in setting up your station included for $1500; and with set-up service plus program support included for $3000.  The station comes with five or 20 hours of consulting support for implementing your project, and we will be working to build regional and national projects on shared themes and issues, using this standardized system. Order yours now, and join the effort! Joe Lambert Executive Director StoryCenter