A new post by Maine Historical Society Assistant Director Steve Bromage appears on “UpNext,” the blog for the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The subject? The role that Maine Memory Network plays in promoting and building 21st century skills.
Bangor Museum and Center for History curator Dana Lippitt with students in Ron Bilancia's Maine Studies class at Cohen School. Three schools, the Bangor Public Library, and the Bangor Museum participated in MHS's Maine Community Heritage Project (MCHP) during the 2009-2010 year.
A large number of those skills–not just technology, but a whole host of factors important to the success of institutions in our day and age–are gained or strengthened when individuals and organizations undertake Maine Memory Network projects.
As Steve notes in the post:
Training people to select, catalog, and digitize material provides a chance to introduce or reinforce a wide range of fundamental historical skills—i.e. literacy and critical thinking skills… More broadly, collaboration encourages partners to clarify their own institutional interests and needs, and to identify the skills and resources that each has to share. Successful collaboration requires project planning, civic engagement, communication, flexibility, sharing, and creativity as well as historical understanding and the ability to use technology.
