Tips for Creating Tales & Travel Memories Programs

Feel free to use any of the Excursion Guides to help you create your own Tales and Travel Memories Programs.  (These Guides were funded by the 2013ALA ASCLA Carnegie-Whitney Grant to Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL).

Each Excursion Guide includes:

  • A brief table of contents
  • Examples of destination-specific folktales
  • Tips for conducting a successful Tales and Travel Memories program
  • Facts about the destination
  • An annotated bibliography detailing top titles for each destination
  • List of suggested supplemental materials and web-based resources

Excursion Guides for 12 destinations are available.  Click the link to download the PDF.

 

 Sample agenda for an Excursion

  • Greet each person individually as s/he enters the room.
  • Use a globe or large map to show each person where s/he is now and where the excursion will take them.
  • Residents take turns reading aloud from a folktale or story representative of the area.
  • Residents read aloud five interesting facts about the region. Facts should be typed in a large, clear font.
  • Distribute highly illustrated books about the destination. These titles are selected from the library’s adult and children’s collections. Residents browse at their own pace.
  • Initiate informal, casual conversation with residents. This adds a personal and social touch to the program. Be creative, and have fun!
  • Use this facilitation checklist to ensure that your program has been designed to meet the needs and abilities of those living with dementia.

Tips for choosing books for browsing

The following tips are taken from the Non-Fiction Reader’s Advisory Form developed by the American Library Association’s Library Services for Dementia/Alzheimer’s (LSDA):

  • Books from both the adult and children’s collections may be appropriate.
  • General criteria – choose books with:
    • Lots of color photographs
    • Lots of white space without dense text
    • Large font to accommodate vision and cognitive issues
    • Books that are not too long or too heavy
  • Dementia is a progressive disease with several stages that can advance slowly over a number of years. Different books may be more appropriate for those at different stages and abilities.
    • For early and middle stages:
      • Coffee table books from the adult collection
      • Non-fiction books for 4th- 8th graders
    • As the disease progresses further, books at the primary level may be useful.
    • If you don’t know the ability level of the person, pull books from several levels and let the readers make the final choices.
  • Books should be chosen to respect the dignity of these adult users. If selecting children’s books, avoid books with cartoons or childish illustrations.

Folktales

Each Tales and Travel Memories Program includes a destination-specific folktale. Participants can take turns reading aloud from the folktale. We currently offer 30 folktales for a variety of destinations with more in development. All folktales have been adapted by Kathleen Simonetta, a retired librarian. Each folktale, downloadable here in PDF form, includes a Creative Commons license.