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‘Uncrowned Community Builders’ technology site to be unveiled

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By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Published: October 1, 2008

Buffalo’s “uncrowned community builders” will be celebrated Oct. 4 in the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library in Buffalo with the unveiling of an interactive technology site that will allow community members to share, read and upload personal histories of unsung community builders.

Ceremonies will begin at 1 p.m. with a welcome by William A. Miles, retired assistant deputy director of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Libraries (B&ECPL), and Sandra Williams Bush, manager of the Merriweather Library.

Larry Buck, current B&ECPL president and Bridget Quinn-Carey, B&ECPL director, will offer opening remarks.

Barbara Seals Nevergold, co-founder of Uncrowned Community Builders and a senior educational specialist at UB, will describe the technology site located in the Merriweather Library.

A library kiosk will permit the public to log onto the Uncrowned Community Builders Web site, become a member and send biographies, photos and audio messages about community builders directly to the Web page for posting.

Nevergold’s co-founder of this endeavor, Peggy Brooks Bertram, also a UB senior educational specialist, will describe the initiative’s interactive digital literacy project. She and Nevergold hope to unveil other technology sites at libraries, museums and historical sites across the country, including the Smithsonian Institution.

“As the first affiliate in the country, the Buffalo & Erie County Library has enthusiastically embraced the Uncrowned Community Builders project because it teaches digital literacy skills and provides a mechanism to preserve and share individual histories,” Nevergold said.

Special commentaries will be offered by John W. Franklin, director of partnerships and international relations at the Smithsonian Institution’s National African American Museum of History and Culture, and by David Penniman, former dean of the UB School of Informatics and executive director of NYlink, a non-profit cooperative serving libraries and cultural heritage organizations of all types throughout New York State.

Additional remarks and proclamations will be offered by Erie County Executive Chris Collins, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, New York State Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, New York State Sen. Antoine Thompson and Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant.

A congratulatory video from the White House Historical Society also will be shown.