One of my favorite memories of my grandma growing up was when she would tell us stories about her childhood, her hometown, her siblings, or my mom. The stories were not elaborate or showy, but my siblings and I were fascinated by what it was like to grow up during the depression or hearing stories about great aunts and uncles that we didn’t get to meet. Through these stories, we felt connected to our family and learned about the community around us. Even though my grandma has been gone for a while now, these stories still live on in my mom and my siblings, who will bring them up during conversations. I think this illustrates the power of a story. Michael Stephens (2019), in his book Wholehearted Librarianship, says,
“Libraries have always been about access to the stories of the world, collected, cataloged, and placed on a shelf waiting to be discovered.”
(Stephens, 2019, p. 91)
Traditionally, these stories have been written in books and audiobooks that live on shelves. However, these stories are taking a different form as the community evolves. Stories are shared through podcasting, for example, ACPL offers a Pages & Voices Podcast that tells the stories of local authors (Allen County Public Library, n.d.). Another version of storytelling is the Human Library (Wentz, 2013). In the Human Library, the human is the book, and patrons can check out the “book” for a short period of time. The “books” tend to be people who are frequently stereotyped and marginalized in communities. This type of library allows for discourse on a wide range of polarizing topics and the opportunity for people who may not normally cross paths with the individual to talk and ask them questions. This can help address bias.
The Human Library has lost some of its momentum during COVID-19 and social distancing, like my community (Human Library FW, n.d.). However, I wonder if it could be revived. Stories can expand someone’s worldview and change the direction of their life and career (Popova, 2016). There are countless stories, like Storm Reyes, who, after reading stories from the library, had the world opened up to them, and suddenly, they had new dreams of who they could be. Stories can also offer a connection to community and to humanity as a whole (Stephens, 2019, p. 93). The Human Library presents the opportunity to reconnect the community and, in turn, the library to the community.
References
Allen County Public Library. (n.d.). Pages & voices podcast. https://www.acpl.lib.in.us/pages-and-voices-podcast
Human Library FW. (n.d.). Never judge a book by its cover. https://www.humanlibraryfw.com/
Popova, M. (2016, October 16). How libraries save lives. The Marginalian. https://www.themarginalian.org/2016/10/06/libraries-storycorps-bookmobile/
Stephens, M. (2019). Wholehearted librarianship: Finding hope, inspiration, and balance. ALA Editions. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ecd6261aqkdgunc1w0ll2/StephensWholehearted_Updated2025v2.pdf?rlkey=f2mblnzua5xtx0hoot5pyergq&e=2&st=0h2niiox&dl=0
Wenz, E. (2013, April 26). The human library: Sharing the community with itself. Public Libraries Online: A Publication of the Public Library Association. https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2013/04/human_librar/
@missjennthelibrarian I so appreciate the story you shared about your grandmother. And how stories can live on.
Make a good point about the human library fading during Covid. I would like to see it come back as well especially in these times. It seems like it would be an effective way to start community conversations.
Yes! I think it would be a great way to humanize a lot of polarizing conversations that are happening behind screens right now.