Orange Unit: A Person-Centered Launch
4A: Storytelling in the Information Sciences
Yingying Han and Martin Wolske
Storytelling’s Long History in the Information Sciences
Many of us may have the childhood experience of sleeping while a family member tells us a bedtime story. But if we look more closely, we’ll find that storytelling is a ubiquitous practice in our daily lives. The goal of storytelling is “to be able to create a story, to make it live during the moment of telling, to arouse emotions—wonder, laughter, joy, amazement”[1].
Storytelling has a rich history in the library and information sciences (LIS), dating back to the 1890s when it was established as a practice in youth services librarianship[2]. For example, the Urbana Free Library, a public library east of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, hosts regular storytelling sessions for children, attracting many local families. The Urbana Free Library also collaborates with the East Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies at the University to host East Asian story time, providing a valuable resource for young people interested in East Asian culture.
In her paper “Storytelling wisdom: story, information, and DIKW,” Kate McDowell notes that “LIS storytelling emphasizes a triangular relationship between teller, audience, and story, a dynamic process that co-creates a particular telling of a story.” At its best, it is a mutual creation as the three relationships inform each other. The dynamic relationship has three main elements: “For storytelling to occur, there must first be a basic relationship of trust between the teller and the audience. […] Second, the teller has a relationship to the story, whether as creator or reteller. […] Third, the audience has an interpretive relationship to the story” (p. 1224, emphasis by author).”
As we explored in the Orange Unit 3A: The Unknown Tech Innovators, there are a range of unknown innovators of our everyday technologies. In some cases, this may be by choice of the innovator to not tell their story, as such effort isn’t part of their community cultural wealth, or maybe because such effort would compete with their time dedicated to other purposes. But as Bruce Sinclair notes, the stories regarding innovators and innovations often prioritize the work of engineering over that of crafting[3]. Carolyn de la Peña further highlights how the papers and records of such innovation stories are often restricted to those of white men[4]. As we look across the dynamic triangle and consider its three main elements, it is essential for us to add this further lens that inevitably shapes the story, storyteller, and audience in a variety of ways.
Stories transform in many different ways depending on when and where they are told, whether at a fireplace or in cyberspace, to a young person or to a senior. Storytelling serves an essential role in its relationship to story and to audience. Strategically reaching target audiences in ways that encourage them