Pattie Johnston works with enough seniors to know their stories of the World War II era won’t be around forever.

As outreach coordinator for Lawrence Public Library, Johnston is helping with what she hopes will be a citywide effort to record stories from people who lived through the war.

“It’s too good not to do it right now,” she said. “You’ve got stories you’re going to lose.”

Later this month, a group of organizations — including the library, Dole Institute of Politics at Kansas University, Haskell Indian Nations University and Lawrence public schools — will kick off an oral history project asking people who lived during World War II for their memories.

They’ll be recorded on audio and video tape for future generations to hear and see.

Richard Norton Smith, director of the Dole Institute, said the project — dubbed “Lawrence Remembers: The World War II Years” — would include all aspects of the war.

“It’s more than the veterans in uniform we want to collect,” Smith said. “It’s the war on the home front as well as the battlefront.”

He’s especially looking for people who had contact with the German prisoner-of-war camp in town and the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant near DeSoto. He also wants interviews with homemakers and children to see what effect the war had on Lawrence.

The results of the project done by this summer may be incorporated into dedication ceremonies for the Dole Institute building, which will include a World War II veterans reunion the weekend of July 20.

Organizers are hoping to recruit amateur interviewers from throughout the city, including public school classes, to record the stories. They’re having an organizational meeting at 7 p.m. Feb. 25 at South Junior High School, 2734 La. Packets of information, including questions and suggestions, will be available.

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“We’re trying to de-mystify the subject,” Smith said. “Oral history is nothing more than sitting around a table listening to grandma’s stories, but with a tape recorder or video cam. It gives people an immediacy and intimacy you don’t always get with a book or class.”

Johnston, who directs senior programs at the library, said the key to oral history was to be a good listener.

“We need to get those memories down,” she said. “They’re a big part of what makes a community. You can’t understand what you’re doing now until you understand what happened before you.”