In 2014 the Spring Garden Memorial Public Library is going to be leaving its home of 62 years and moving across the street to the new Halifax Central library. This is an exciting new chapter for the city but before we move in to the future, I designed the StackStories project to help us preserve our memories.
For the month of November 2013 I invited the patrons and staff of the library to come in to my small recording booth and share their stories of the branch. At first people didn’t know what to make of my little audio hut but in the end forty-two people came in and generously shared their memories. It was an incredible honour to hear from so many people. The overwhelming sense I got was that the public library is a treasured institution that holds a special place in the lives of Haligonians.
Sixteen of these stories have been woven together in an interactive audio archive.The idea is that through the power of the human voice you will learn and remember what this library is all about.
This project was made possible by a collaboration with Halifax Public Libraries with support from Arts Nova Scotia. I also want to thank Katie McKay for all her amazing photographs, Lukas Steinman for the incredible web design, and AllCaps Design for a job well done!