“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story”(Miranda, 2015). When I think about storytelling, this line from the musical Hamilton always comes to mind. Stories are not only good for learning to read and understand the human experience, but also serve as our history and point us toward our future. That quote from Hamilton is, fundamentally, a narrative inquiry. Instead of asking “what is your story,” it asks “who will tell your story?” This relates back to what Michael Stephens says in his article “Office Hours: Narrative Inquiry” that instead of asking the common, general question of how can we help you, we should be asking more nuanced questions that will allow us as librarians to uncover different aspects of our patrons’ lives and more personal stories about how they see and use the library.
Getting to know our patrons and their stories can help us to provide better services to the community. As we’ve seen time and again, librarianship is about transparency and participatory service, and stories are also part of that. Learning who our patrons are, where they come from, and what they need, will allow us to create services that will be beneficial and useful to our communities. It will also allow us to preserve our history and look toward our future with an educated eye for what’s on the horizon. Every interaction we have with our patrons is an opportunity to learn about their stories. I love the idea of using a white board or something similar to ask a question of the day or leave an open response. I find this particularly fun and interesting to do with our teen patrons, as their answers are often very surprising. Recording these conversations and organizing them into a book or video could tell the story of a season or school year in the life of the teens in the library. This is something they could look back at and see how they’ve changed (or not!) and what they’ve learned (hopefully!).
One way to record and share these community stories is through StoryCorps. StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization whose mission is “to help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all — one story at a time” (StoryCorps, 2026). This is deeply connected to the work we do as librarians by engaging and servicing our community. StoryCorps offers what they call StoryCorps DIY, which is a free course that teaches libraries and other community organizations how to collect and tell the stories of their communities. Their trainings focus on everything from classroom education to dealing with grief and memory loss, reaching across political divides. One common theme throughout is creating connections, and this is something we strive for every day in library work. Connecting with our patrons and our communities is the heart of librarianship.
Telling our stories can happen in many different ways. It can be short interactions or longer conversations. It can be verbal or written. It can sometimes be in a language that isn’t really even a language at all – ☺️♥️📖. It can be recorded by hand or on video. Storytelling takes many forms such as novels and poetry, music and movies, musicals and ballets. The importance of storytelling is that it brings people together, it shows us the power of sharing our experiences, and it preserves our histories for the future.
References:
Getty Images. (n.d.). Everyone has a story [Photograph]. iStock. istockphoto.com
Getty Images. (n.d.). Sticky note on blackboard, Share your story [Photograph]. iStock. istockphoto.com
Getty Images. (n.d.). Student girl writing on whiteboard in classroom [Photograph]. iStock. https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/student-writing-on-whiteboard
Getty Images. (n.d.). What’s your story question [Photograph]. iStock. https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/whats-your-story
Miranda, L. (2015). Hamilton: an American Musical.
Stephens, M. (2020, April, 9). Office hours: narrative inquiry. Tame the Web. https://tametheweb.com/2020/04/09/office-hours-narrative-inquiry/
StoryCorps. (2026). https://storycorps.org/
StoryCorps Do It Yourself. (2026). https://diy.storycorps.org/
I love that you found a way to quote and connect to Hamilton. “Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” definitely fits well with narrative inquiry. That question really highlights the importance of not only preserving stories but also considering whose voices are being heard and whose experiences may be missing. This reminds us that, as librarians, we also need to actively seek out the stories that may not always be represented.
I also really liked your idea of collecting teen voices through a question of the day or community storytelling project. Teens have lots to say, but aren’t always given the space to. Creating a record of their thoughts, experiences, and growth throughout a school year could become a powerful piece of community history. It also gives teens ownership in telling their own stories rather than having others speak for them.