{"id":67,"date":"2026-07-26T19:22:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/hopefullyhyperlinkedaworkinprogress\/?p=67"},"modified":"2026-07-26T19:22:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T19:22:00","slug":"reflection-blog-4-the-power-of-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/287.hyperlib.sjsu.edu\/hopefullyhyperlinkedaworkinprogress\/2026\/07\/26\/reflection-blog-4-the-power-of-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflection Blog #4 – The Power of Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWho lives, who dies, who tells your story”<\/span><\/a>(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 \u201cwhat is your story,\u201d it asks \u201cwho will tell your story?\u201d This relates back to what Michael Stephens says in his article \u201cOffice Hours: Narrative Inquiry\u201d 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\u2019 lives and more personal stories about how they see and use the library.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Getting to know our patrons and their stories can help us to provide better services to the community. As we\u2019ve 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve changed (or not!) and what they\u2019ve learned (hopefully!).<\/span><\/p>\n

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One way to record and share these community stories is through <\/span>StoryCorps<\/span><\/a>. StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization whose mission is \u201cto help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all \u2014 one story at a time\u201d (StoryCorps, 2026). This is deeply connected to the work we do as librarians by engaging and servicing our community. StoryCorps offers what they call <\/span>StoryCorps DIY<\/span><\/a>, 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.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n