by Youth Services Manager Julie
The Bexley Public Library and the Ohio State University are celebrating the accomplishments of our pilot partnership Bigger Than Me: My Story, My Culture. We want to invite you to see the amazing results and honor our young authors and their work on their first self-published books at our showcase celebration on Sunday March 23rd at 3 p.m. in the Bexley Public Library auditorium.
Bigger Than Me: My Story, My Culture is a new children’s book series for families that nests personal stories within the broader family and cultural histories, empowering children who have grown up away from their countries of family origin to connect or reconnect with their cultural heritage. Using storytelling techniques, multimedia, art, and digitization, they bring their own epic story to life in the form of a self-published book!
The Bexley Public Library, working with OSU professors, librarians, and alumna hosted a series of intergenerational heritage workshops to support children and their families’ research to create their own heritage stories.
“I can’t say enough good things about this program. It’s been a been a beautiful way for us to connect as a family and that’s the most important part.”
-Davida Osei
During fall of 2024 through winter of 2025, participating families learned how to write their stories from different perspectives, how to interview family members over the holidays, how to include all the standard elements of a book in their self-published title, and used the BPL Memory Lab to digitize pictures, art, and 3-D artifacts for their book.
“When we are working on this project at home, having an opportunity to pause and participate in an extracurricular activity that doesn’t just involve a parent watching the kids (like sports) has been great for us.”
-Davida Osei
This robust partnership with Ohio State grew from previous partnerships headed by Youth Services Manager Julie Perdue and Dr. Michelle Wibbelsman (Department of Spanish and Portuguese) and the books are modeled after Dr. Wibbelsman’s book On the Wings of the Condor featured in WOSU’s Columbus Neighborhoods documentary television series.
To learn more about the showcase celebration, the process of making these one-of-a-kind books, and to watch the Columbus Neighborhood’s television segment click here.
