I just heard about StoryCorps through a wonderful segment on the BBC World Service Outlook programme.

"You bring a loved one to our booth - a parent, a friend or someone you have just met on the bus whose story you want to get to know - and for forty minutes you just talk. Most people ask the big life questions like: "What are the most important lessons you have learnt?", "How do you want to be remembered?" or "What did your grandmother sing to you when you were a child?" Then at the end of 40 minutes two CDs have been burnt, one stays with you and the second goes to us and we put it in the Library of Congress and it becomes part of the oral history of America."

Listening to the piece reminded me of the inspiration for this project. I was talking to my friend Cynthia and she mentioned how she often asked her Grandmother for advice and inpiration; it was something I had never done and immediately regretted. 

I wrote down two phrases from Mathew Bannister's conversation with StoryCorps founder David Isay:

"Forty minutes to transmit wisdom from one generation to the next."

"Turn off your computer and cellphone, look a loved one in the eye and tell them how much they mean to you by listening to them."

There is a wonderful conversation between Seymour and Marcia Gottlieb in the Outlook piece and these three compilations are an introduction to the breadth and emotion of the recordings. The talk below by founder David Isay gives an overview of his career as a Radio Producer and the ideas and passion behind the StoryCorps project (apologies for posting such a long video, but I enjoyed it so much I would feel I was cheating to post anything shorter). 

Finally, if you have the chance, I throughly recommend listening to as much of the World Service as you can.

Coralie Bickford-Smith recently designed a wonderful advice poster, partly inspired by the Orange Juice song 'Rip it up & start again'.

The association feels especially relevant as Edwyn Collins (lead singer of Orange Juice, solo artist and idol of mine) suffered a debilitating stroke in 2005. His remarkable determination to recover - learning to speak, read, write, walk, draw, sing and compose again - is documented in the BBC Scotland documentary Home Again (see part 1 of 4 below).

As Coralie writes:

"It's all about reinvention: that it's flexible; that when it feels like it's going wrong it's ok to start again and when you do things over, although it's a chore, it makes them better. Practice makes perfect...."

Ju - who for the past year, has helped guide the advice posters and the new postcard pack to the press in the most patient, enthusiastic and expert way - has designed a new poster for the project (detail below).

The design comes from his doodle pad which sat on his desk for the duration of the POST 3 job. See the full version here.

Roger Towe, Head Librarian at Woodlane library died earlier this week from a heart attack.

It is very hard to imagine the college without him.

My first thought, after disbelief, was that I didn't say thank you enough. Without Roger's support and encouragement this project wouldn't have happened. He was always available for a moral-boosting talk, full of ideas and contacts and when you are trying to get a project started, a positive voice from inside the college means so much.

He had a vision for the college that came from a genuine enthusiasm for student's work and from seeing the library as a hub that brought people together. The exhibition space above the library and ongoing collection of student and graduate work and publications was just one part of this.

Dean Owens put it well when he said: 'He's irreplaceable as his job description could simply have read: 'being Roger.'

Thank you Roger.

Update: Anne sent this picture together with her comment below: