BANGOR — Getting people to talk about themselves will be the next focus of TimeStoppers, the Bangor Public Library’s time capsule project.

People will be asked Jan. 29 to record on paper or on video and audiotapes what’s going on in their lives, what their concerns are, what they’re thinking about, and what they believe the future holds for their community and nation.

The information will be preserved in the time capsule so that future generations can “see what we were all about,” said Michael Crowley, time capsule project chairman, during a press conference Thursday inside the library, which is scheduled to open Monday, Jan. 26.

Library trustee Bill Sullivan told the group sitting in the new reading room that a camera would be set up in the library Jan. 29 so that residents could express whatever they want to those living in the middle of the next century.

Crowley said the “interactive day” ensures that the time capsule project “is not stale or staid, but full of life.”

He read a proclamation issued by the Bangor City Council stating that “time will stop” Jan. 29 so that residents may “take stock of what life was like in 1998.”

Sullivan said that although Jan. 29 has been set aside as a special day, residents have until the end of February to submit letters, photographs and tape recordings for the time capsule.

The idea of the TimeStoppers project, which was first announced last June, is to document public events, regional activities and special projects which take place through the beginning of May 1998.

The capsule, a 30-gallon airtight and watertight container, was donated by Nickerson and O’Day, the construction company for the library expansion project. It will be lowered into a compartment to be stored underneath the children’s terrace during the dedication of the addition, planned for May 1-3.

The capsule, which already contains a gavel belonging to the Bangor City Council, a picture of the councilors and a miniature globe provided by Tabitha King, is planned to be opened on May 25, 2048, the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking for the major renovation and expansion project.