Stories For You

Tellable Stories for you from the libraries of Sacramento City College, the Sacramento Public Library, and the Internet

1. Do you have an email account? You will need one in order to expedite getting text versions of stories easily and cheaply. You can get a very good one for free on http://www.yahoo.com. And you can get one from Sac City College. Go to https://imail.losrios.edu/ and follow directions. You will need your student ID.
   
   
2. We will cover several very useful services of the SCC Library, the Sacramento Public Library and selected (and carefully checked out) sites on the Internet.
   
   
3. The SCC Media Center is on the first floor. It has three items of interest. A VHS videotape library, a media lab with players for the VHS videotapes (and audio tapes), and a number of high speed Internet terminals with earphones for you to listen to and watch stories on the Internet. If you want to try watching your instructor Mary McGrath, get on the Lois Terminal in front of the checkout desk and put the term “City Lights Storytelling” into the Keyword Search box. Four video tapes will come on the screen. Titles are as follows: A Jungian interprets stories;“Sweat” by Mary McGrath (about personal stories); moral narratives from the Indian subcontinent; Chinese Teahouse stories (by Charlie Chin). Each of these is 50 minutes long. They were developed for SCC Faculty enrichment. Write down the Access number. They must be watched in the Media Center. On the Media Center's high speed Internet terminals you can watch previous ECE 190 storytellers on Professor Mary McGrath's personal college website. http://scc.losrios.edu/~mcgratm
   
   You click on “Student storytellers....” and then on any one of the storytellers. The stories told are Little Red Riding Hood, Sadako and the Thousand Cranes, Caps for Sale, and Grandfather's Clock.
   
   
4. Circulation Desk on Second Floor. This is where you check out books. Also where the reserve books for ECE 190 are kept. These books are on 2 hour loan to give everyone in the class maximum access.
   
   
5. Reference Desk and Reference Book shelves. On Second Floor across from circulation desk. Here is where you ask questions, especially about the use of the Internet for searching for articles, stories about storytelling. You can use ProQuest and InfoTrac, but be warned these sites generate thousands of references. You will definitely need Reference Librarian help before you start searching, in order to limit your search output. This is also where your email address comes in handy. You can email your search results to yourself, and print them out later at your convenience, saving time and money.
   
   
6. Internet terminals for searching. About a dozen of these are located near the Reference Desk, so you can pause from your searching, and seek in-context help from a Reference librarian. You will need to get an access code from the Circulation Desk. There may be a 15 minute time limit if others are waiting. Start with the LOIS catalog which accesses all the campuses. Materials may be ordered on line if not held at SCC. My favorite LC (Library of Congress) keyword terms are folktale, folklore, myth, legend, personal narrative, fairytale, and storytelling. The catalog will lead you to LC shelf locations. GR, DT and E have folktales by country of origin, LB has storytelling as an educational topic, PZ has children's picture books, PS has drama. It is very helpful to browse the shelves in these locations. When you pull an interesting book off the shelf, note the LC catalog subject terms used to describe it.
   
   You can also access other library catalogs directly from these terminals. Sacramento Public Library is the logical choice, since you can request any book or tape in the entire collection to be sent to the library nearest your home or school. Their catalog is organized on the Dewey system. 392 and 398.2 are the shelf browsing locations. You can use the same keywords to search as you used in LOIS.
   
   A useful place to go, to browse, and to seek help, is the basement of Central Libraryat 9th and I, the Children's Room. Rebecca Higgerson (rhiggerson@saclibrary.org) is very knowlegeable about the system's holdings, and children's literature in general.
   
   
7. The Internet is a virtually unlimited source for stories, storytellers in action, and articles about uses of storytelling. You can also search the Internet from the Child Development Center Room 208. Some of my favorite locations to visit are as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/storytelling
Excellent brief article on all aspects of storytelling.

www.teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/storyteller/telling.htm
This commercial site has a wealth of information on how to use storytelling in the classroom. You can commune with Jane Yolen, Michael Fierst and Nina Jaffe.

www.americanfolklore.net/folktales

www.storyteller.net/stories
You will need Windows Media Player v. 9 or Real Player installed to listen to audio files.

Stories of all nations, especially Germany.

www.storynet.org ( –The national association of professional storytellers and festivals.)

www.folktale.net/stories.html (Tim Jennings' storytelling site in vermont.)

www.peacecorps.gov/wws/students/folktales

www.storyarts.org/theatre/index.html
Heather Forest's audio tapes. Northwind, Fighting Rooster, Sour Grapes and the Turnip.

There are dozens world famous storytellers on tape, videotape, CD, CVD, and various formats of sound files. They are archived and indexed under their first and last names. Bill Harley, Donna Washington, Dovie Thomason Sickles, Joan Swift, Mountain Mike, Noa Baum, Pat Mendoza, Regi Carpenter, Sid Lieberman, Willy Claflin.