This week’s hyperlinked library module was titled The Power of Stories, and was centered upon the ubiquity and impact that stories hold. We explored some of the different approaches that libraries are taking in creating, preserving, and sharing stories. These stories are redefining the concept of the library collection by making community-led content an important part of the library’s body of information.
As someone with a strong interest in both the discipline of social history and the medium of oral history, I feel there is a clear connection between the librarian and the historian in these story-based initiatives. Social history refers to a study and understanding of history through examination of the common or marginalized person, and has been referred to as “history from below,” in contrast with more traditional, top-down approaches, such as histories focused on kingdoms, wars, or “great men.” Oral history seeks to document and preserve the spoken word as historical artefact, and is a natural companion to social history through the recording of personal recollections, which give a voice to the common person. The social history approach and the oral history methodology are intersecting in today’s libraries: the stories of everyday people in our communities are being recorded and becoming a part of the library’s stores of knowledge.
Libraries are adopting a variety of approaches to collect and tell the stories that exist in their communities. Some, like the Hamilton Public Library, are creating community story archives, soliciting and preserving stories about local history, events and spaces through Hamilton Stories (2025). Others are advocating for a “human library” model, where “people—rather than books—are available for checkout,” allowing users to share stories directly (Wentz, 2013). Many have partnered with StoryCorps, a nonprofit which provides libraries with a framework for recording stories (Eberhart, 2018). Others, like Dokk1, are embracing the vast reach and impact of social media to share user stories. Though their exact practices may differ, these libraries are all embracing the value of creating stories by and for their communities, and subverting the traditional, top-down flow of information in libraries. If social history is a “history from below,” then perhaps these can be considered libraries from below, wherein stories are not only found on the library shelves, but are created by the library community.
The knowledge found in a library is no longer limited to the books it obtains and dispenses; the collective knowledge of the library community is shared through stories and discussion. Like social historians, librarians can play a valuable role in giving a voice to the common and marginalized people–by empowering people to share their stories, we enrich our understanding of our communities.
References
Antenna. People meeting in room [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/people-meeting-in-room-cw-cj_nFa14
Eberhart, G. M. (2018, February 10). Sharing people’s stories: StoryCorps partners with public libraries. American Libraries. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/sharing-peoples-stories/
Hamilton Public Library. (2025). Hamilton stories. https://hamiltonstories.ca/
Wentz, E. (2013, April 26). The human library: Sharing the community with itself. Public Libraries Online. https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/04/human_librar/