Colorado Springs Colorado North Family History Center/Family Story Room

Record My Story Room
The Colorado Springs North Family History Discovery Center's Record My Story Room will be available for use to record your family's stories beginning early spring. The space is designed with audio and video technology. The private and comfortable furnishings provide a quiet, secluded area ideal for recording personal histories.

Features
All of our digital audio and video equipment is designed to make recording oral histories and interviews easy. Our qualified staff will provide all technical support for your recording session. Suggested options for recording histories: One person can record themselves reading or verbalizing their memories or histories. Two or more people can record a conversation or share memories with each other. One person can interview one or more others while recording their responses. While designed for 1 or 2, we can accomodate up to 5 individuals.

Tips for a successful session
The Record My Story Room will be available for one hour and fifteen minute sessions. Follow these five steps as you prepare for your session:

Step 1 – Record your appointment in your calendar Step 2 – Tell other participants about the reservation Step 3- Plan your story or interview (see links below for tips) Step 4 – Get thumb drive or SD card (at least 2GB) to store the video file Step 5 – Come to the Center on the day of your reservation

Each session will include one hour to record a video interview and fifteen minutes to render the video recording and save it to your personal flash drive with at least 2GB of storage. Visit this site for tips on interviewing family members and this site for ideas about how to tell a great story. These sites have suggestions for questions you may want to ask/answer during you session:20 questions from the Stories That Bind Us and 50 questions from About Parenting. Be sure to bring photos and memorabilia to make your story more interesting. Here's an excellent example of using all of these techniques to tell a great story.

We recommend you read the article The Stories That Bind Us to get a sense of the importance of passing along family stories.

Reservations will soon be available
The Record My Story Room will be available during normal operating hours after April 1, 2015. Reservations will be able to be made online after checking the online calendarand then clicking on the "register here" link. For online reservations, we will need 48 hours advance notice. If the time you request is available you will be notified by a phone or email confirmation. If the time is not available you will receive an email or phone call to help you select another time that is available.