Tell me a Story!

“libraries should keep stories, share stories, and make stories.”

—Erik Boekesteijn, Doklab consultant and senior advisor to the National Library of The Netherlands*

As I was preparing to write this post, I had a book calling to me. I was through the first two thirds of it and things were starting to ramp up toward the satisfying conclusion I knew was coming. Libraries are known for providing access to that kind of story. It’s one of the reasons that they are so popular with avid readers. But what about the rest of the community?

There is so much more to what libraries have to offer and so much more that libraries can realistically be doing to benefit the community than lending books. Services like connecting people with resources as disparate as starting a business or finding shelter are things that generally aren’t thought of as brand library. And speaking of stories, my library has a little soundproof recording booth which sits empty far too often. Could we teach folks of all ages and backgrounds how to make a podcast or encourage them to make a StoryCorps recording?

I’ve also been fascinated by the Human Library Project since 2020, yet we’ve never gotten it going.

These great ideas need community participation to be successful. And even though librarians already do so much planning for these services, they often forget that not everyone knows about them. One problem is that librarians are not so practiced in telling their own stories. The bosses, the board members, and the tax payers need to hear the compelling stories that encourage them to support libraries’ efforts and innovations. Libraries need to be shouting these stories from the rooftops so that everybody in the community knows they are welcome and that they will be better off for having visited the library. Well maybe not rooftops (though it is an idea). But all libraries need to be using social media as a matter of course, making short videos and memes, for instance (and their own podcasts). They also need to get out in the community and have their elevator pitch perfected.

As a library worker, I’ve had people bursting to tell me things not only about what they’re reading but what’s going on in their lives. We’ve got the pieces of the puzzle, we just need to put them together.

Notes:

*In Stephens’, Wholehearted Librarianship