Storytelling was a huge part of my early childhood. Born to a preschool teacher mom and poetry-obsessed grandmother, one might say I hit the story jackpot. When we weren’t reading or telling, we played the back episodes of Prairie Home Companion on cassette tapes checked out from our library. Some years after I left home, NPR began airing the Moth Radio Hour, and I often found myself parked and waiting for a story to finish before getting out of my car and moving on with my day.
I was especially moved by our module on the Power of Stories. I’ve learned in the past about the Human Library but was excited to see Aarne-Skidmore’s 2021 follow-up in our module reading list. Tracking both the short and long term impact of the Human Library reveals that it’s not just a fun program. Aarne-Skidmore writes, “It was frequently mentioned that being faced with another human being inspired [participants] to reflect on their own biases and resulted in an increased sensitivity towards the diversity that exists beyond physical appearance” (2021).
I’m seeing a connection between this mode of gathering information from HL participants and Dr. Stephens’ Narrative Inquiry which shuns the standard survey structure in favor of a more open-ended conversation. In the Human Library, “conversations have no prescribed direction and develop organically, making each loan period unique” (Wentz, 2013). Similarly, Stephens describes Narrative Inquiry as a “flexible interview format to collect information about unique, personal experiences… NI encourages a full spectrum of unique responses and brings to life the story of individuals” (2020).
As a quiet, and rather bookish person in LIS, I sometimes feel the need to “defend” libraries as a place that is more than just a story warehouse. “It’s not just books– it’s research! It’s preservation! It’s community! It’s connection! It’s… it’s… it’s–” so many things. But in reflecting on this module, I’ve realized that it’s all stories. As Dr. Stephens writes, “Libraries have always been about access to the stories of the world, collected, cataloged, and placed on a shelf waiting to be discovered” (2019).
References
Aarne-Skidmore, A. (2021). New study on the impact of the human library. Human Library. https://humanlibrary.org/new-study-on-the-impact-of-the-human-library/
Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship: Finding Hope, Inspiration, and Balance. ALA Editions.
Stephens, M. (2020, April 9). Office hours: Narrative inquiry – Tame the web. https://tametheweb.com/2020/04/09/office-hours-narrative-inquiry/
Wentz, E. (2013, May 29). The Human Library: Sharing the Community with Itself – Public Libraries Online. Public Libraries Online – A Publication of the Public Library Association. https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/04/human_librar/