Five Ways to Interact with the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

There are so many ways to participate in the DALN, and they don't stop at submitting your own narrative!  Today we share five ways to interact with the DALN.


1. View, read, and listen to narratives archived in the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

When contributors submit stories to the DALN, they make their stories available for public access through the Internet--and they're meant to be enjoyed and watched!  Some fun ways to browse the archive include...

Browse Options on the DALN Home Page

--Search by keyword for an idea or trend that’s important to you.  For example, as of today's posting date, there are 135 narratives tagged with the keyword music, eleven with the keyword love letters, and seven with the keyword tattoo!

--Browse a DALN Collection, such as the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Contributors Collection or the submissions from students in the First-Year Writing Program at The Ohio State University during the 2010-2011 school year!  Many of the organizations in the DALN Contributing Partners Program also have extensive collections.

--Follow our blog via Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or Follow by Email (see the sidebar at right) so that you won't miss any of our Featured Narratives posts here on the blog!

2. Teach with Literacy Narratives Across the Curriculum


The DALN's narratives encompass reading, writing, and composing in a wide variety of contexts.  Just look at the DALN search results for the keywords biology, dance, or computer science!  And of course, literacy narratives are very useful in composition or literacy courses.

Four DALN Search Results for keyword biology

Whether you have students compose their own narratives or view the narratives of others, select sample narratives for student discussion and analysis or have students find relevant narratives on their own, select a literacy trend to highlight or have students identify trends in the narratives, the DALN offers possibilities for almost every academic topic.  For more, chck out the DALN's Teacher Resources section.

3. Tell Others About the DALN

The DALN grows more rich and diverse as it reaches new audiences and inspires new contributors.  Do you know a person, group, or organization that might be interested in archiving their literacy stories or interacting with the DALN in other ways?  Link them to the DALN home page, to a relevant literacy narrative from the archive, or to our DALN blog!  

4. Submit a Literacy Narrative (or Two, or Three!) to the Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives

Feeling camera shy or have writer's block?  There are lots of ways to reduce the intimidation factor, like telling the story to a friend or family member while you record or focusing your narrative on a specific person, place, or object related to your literacy history.  Many DALN contributors find that once they start thinking and talking about a literacy story, they can't stop talking about it!  Brainstorm ideas for literacy narratives with this document, or learn more about the DALN submission process--or stay tuned for a blog post later this week that walks you step by step through the online narrative submission process!

5. Help Others Record and Contribute their Stories

Family, friends, colleagues, and members of groups and organizations in your life all have wonderful literacy stories to tell.  Since the DALN accepts submissions in multiple forms--text, audio, and video--submitted online or via snail mail, many potential contributors are just one helper away from contributing their wonderful story to a permanent public archive.

This is where you come in!  Make contact with an organization or group, determine a time and location for setting up a simple recording booth, and help other folks record and share their stories.  Your contributors can use keywords to tie their narratives together so that they can be easily located as a group in the DALN archive.  Groups with many potential contributors might also consider becoming part of the DALN Contributing Partners program.

Stay tuned later this week for a post that walks you through the DALN submission process.  Jen, our own DALN Social Media Coordinator, will show you step by step how she records and submits a DALN narrative! 

Have you used the DALN in one of these ways, or perhaps in another way altogether?  We'd love to hear from you in the blog comments!