Digital Storytelling: What is it and How Can we Use it in Libraries? by Kathy Meengs

 

Digital Storytelling: What is it and How Can we Use it in Libraries? By Kathy Meengs

Storytelling is one of the oldest traditions among humans. It predates writing. Before we had writing, ancient man would use drawings on the walls of caves. Storytelling is not just for entertainment; we use it to pass on family history and culture, to share worldview philosophies and lived experience wisdom, to pass on information and instruction. It is who we are.

So what is ‘digital storytelling’? It’s a “blend of video, audio, images, and text that are used to convey stories, information, and ideas” (Sturge, 32). These new technologies provide for exciting ways to enliven our storytelling, engaging our audiences and providing learning opportunities for the creator. In school libraries and classrooms, free and paid platform tools, such as StoryCorps and StoryCorps Education, StoryJumper, and Adobe Spark are being used to help students create digital stories for all kinds of school projects, bringing their unique voices to their work and learning new technology at the same time (Sturge, 32-36). According to Jennifer Sturge, teacher specialist for school libraries and digital learning for Calvert County Public Schools in Prince Frederick, MD, “As a school librarian, I love digital storytelling; it not only allows me to teach technology skills, but I can also weave in writing skills development, since the steps in digital storytelling really mirror those of the writing process. Stu[1]dents brainstorm, plan a story, create a rough draft, revise, edit, and publish their work” (34).

Another exciting use of digital storytelling is to collect and archive the stories of our community. In Michigan, the State Library partnered with Michigan State University to collect audio files of regular diaries from state residents on living through these pandemic times (Jenkins). These stories will be stored at the state library for current residents to appreciate their part in a historic time, and for future users to understand what Michigan residents experienced. This kind of project can be replicated in big and small ways at libraries across the country.

But libraries can use digital storytelling, too—to tell the story of their library: its history, its community, its advocacy, its projects, its staff, its programming, its collection. The sky is the limit. And today, as libraries of all kinds struggle to communicate their relevancy and importance, competing with all the noise of a social media- and technology-dominated world, we need to use the most engaging strategies to tell our stories. We, as libraries, need to be using as well as teaching the technology. And we need to be thoughtful about how we’re telling our stories, and what our strategies are. In Pennsylvania, the State Library and Altoona Area Public Library partnered with the learning company Get Storied who specializes in transformational storytelling to create the “The Library Story: A Strategic Storytelling Toolkit for Public Libraries.” This toolkit is brimming with concrete ideas of how to tell your library’s story. Coupled with the use of lively and engaging technology, these storytelling strategies can help us remind our communities of why we’re here, and why we’re important. We in the libraries need to practice what we teach and roll up our sleeves, cue the avatar, turn on the camera, start the soundtrack, and tell our stories.

 Works Cited

Jenkins, Tianna. “MI Diaries Project Documents Michiganders Lives During the Coronavirus Pandemic.” Fox 47 News.  2 Feb. 2021. https://www.fox47news.com/neighborhoods/msu-campus/mi-diaries-project-documents-michiganders-lives-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic. Accessed May 26, 2022.

The Library Story: A Strategic Storytelling Toolkit for Public Libraries. https://www.powerlibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/PA_StorytellingTOOLKIT.pdf. Accessed May 26, 2022.

Sturge, Jennifer. “New Digital Storytelling Advocacy Resources.” American Libraries, vol. 50, no. 6, June 2019, p. 12. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=136833026&site=ehost-live&scope=site.