I was fascinated to see the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) Insta Novels as a resource for this module, because it’s something that sounds incredibly cool but that I’d also never heard of. Admittedly, the initiative happened in 2018, long before I worked there, but you would think such an innovative project would still be mentioned. And these Insta Novels are still highlighted on NYPL’s Instagram. The concept of a “digital library,” as the press release says, is certainly very cool. In clicking through these stories, though, I feel like I understand why I’ve never heard of them–they don’t really work.

An excerpt from ‘The Raven,’ part of the NYPL Insta Novel initiative.

An excerpt of ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, part of the NYPL Insta Novel initiative.

As much as it can be fun to click through Instagram stories, I can’t think of anyone who would actually read an entire novel in this format. I think the only one I might actually click through all the way is ‘The Raven,’ which feels like a more manageable length. I don’t know that they truly took advantage of the medium of Instagram when conceiving of this project. At some point, it feels like reading a book on the Kindle app on your phone, just with some better illustrations.

I actually think of this in conjunction with video games and literacy. If you just roll with that as a concept, combining the two mediums, it’s easy to end up with just a novel inside a video game that doesn’t actually engage with how video games work. The 2021 report on video games and literary talks about how in-game messaging is the thing that increases literacy, not necessarily following a storyline in a game, which a well-meaning parent might think of when associating video games and literacy. I think NYPL fell into this trap a tad when designing their Insta Novels. They knew people liked Instagram stories, and they wanted people to read books–so they just dumped a book into their stories, without seeming to pay much attention to what’s likable about stories in the first place (which isn’t long-form content).

I love practing typing, but I get tired of the little typing games most websites have. When looking for an alternative, I discovered a website that lets you type novels.  I’m obsessed with this thing, because it lets me work on typing while also lettinig me read, one of my favorite activities. This is a fascinating ‘new model’ in my opinion, in that it’s taking advantage of an important tech skill, typing, to increase literacy. It’s a technology that beautifully combines form and function. I think when we’re looking towards these new models, finding new ways to incorporate technology into day-to-day information practicies, we have to make sure we’re combining things that make sense to combine, that actually work well together and achieve goals in tandem. Reading the entireity of Alice in Wonderland in mostly static Instagram stories? Not quite it, I don’t think.

References

Children and young people’s video game playing and literacy in 2021. (2021, August 9). National Literacy Trust. https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-video-game-playing-and-literacy-in-2021/

New York Public Library [@nypl]. The Raven [Highlights]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.ccom/nypl

New York Public Library [@nypl]. YellowWallpaper [Highlights]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/nypl

NYPL Staff. (2018, August 22). Insta novels: Brining classic literature to Instagram Stories. New York Public Library. https://wayback.archive-it.org/18689/20220311170035/https://www.nypl.org/blog/2018/08/22/instanovels

Typelit.io. (2025). https://www.typelit.io/

Video games and literacy. (2025). National Literacy Trust.  https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/video-games-and-literacy/