Library Offers Chance To Be Part Of Historic Project
On June 24, Diane Guscott, community relations and development coordinator for the Lititz Public Library, gave a virtual class called Journaling for Life. The class was based on a live journaling presentation that Guscott, who has been journaling for nearly three decades, had given live a few years ago. "Journaling was very helpful to me during the pandemic," recalled Guscott. "It kept me sane."
Guscott resurrected the journaling presentation to encourage area residents to journal for their own mental health, but also to draw attention to the Community Journaling Project that the library started during the pandemic.
The journaling project offers three journals, each with a specific prompt, to library patrons. A display in the library explains more about the project and offers a card for each journal. The card can be taken to the circulation desk to check out the journal for a week or more. Participants have the opportunity to read what has been written in the journal, write in the journal, and then return it to the library. Writers may choose whether to sign their entry, which Guscott scans for appropriateness when the journal is returned. "If (the project) takes off, we can add (the journals) to our permanent collection," Guscott said.
Guscott researched the idea before bringing it to the library. She noted that many universities started pandemic journal projects so they would have a written record of what people were doing and their reactions to the historical occurrence. Guscott also looked back to the last pandemic and found a book put out by the Lancaster Historical Society called "Pandemic 1918." The book is now available for visitors to see in the library's genealogy room. "The really interesting thing about that pandemic of 1918 and what was happening locally is that so many of the things people were writing about are the same things we talk about (now)," Guscott said, noting school and business closings and wearing masks were hot topics.
The three journals currently available for community members to add entries to are "Memories of the Lititz Community," "Tried- and-True Recipes and Household Fixes," and "Stories My Grandparents Told Me." Guscott and other library staff members and a few community members have already contributed to the journals.
For more information about the journaling video or the Community Journaling Project, readers may visit https://lititzlibrary.org or call 717-626-2255.
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