The document discusses the power of storytelling in libraries. It summarizes that storytelling is a meaning-making experience, as it involves selecting details from experience, reflecting on them, giving them order, and making sense of them. Storytelling allows libraries to connect with patrons, create displays and programs, archive local history, and help patrons locate and retrieve information. The document provides examples of three stories that could be told in a library about the Civil War, a local family, and something a waiter remembered. It advocates that libraries should create, curate, and celebrate stories.

1. “Learning” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6257184215/
A Way of Knowing
The Power of Storytelling as a Connector in Libraries
Diane M. Cordell

2. "Stories are a way of knowing.
[The] process of
selecting constitutive details of experience,
reflecting on them,
giving them order,
and thereby making sense of them
...makes telling stories
a meaning-making experience."
-I.E. Seidman (Interviewing as Qualitative Research)
“Gray Day, Red Yarn” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4304372680/

3. SELECTING

4. “The Lyric Ballad” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/3336581900/

5. “The Future is Now” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4735227875/

6. “Photo archives, The Free Library of Philadelphia” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4319907649/

7. “Computer: Aerial Dead Reckoning” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5349715756/

8. “Learning” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4538691046/

9. REFLECTING

10. “Information puzzle” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6257900211/

11. “Veteran’s Day Tribute” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4104990874/

12. “Conversation” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5868802891/

13. GIVING THEM ORDER

14. “They warned me!” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/3341506111/

15. “Shelving” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/3291934742/

16. “The Gallery” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/3288888215/

17. “Some Flickr options” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5283671735/

18. MAKING SENSE OF
THEM

19. “Learning” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4618997470/

20. “Almost home” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4027424190/

21. “Trail map” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5375586917/

22. IN THE LIBRARY...

23. Connect
“Family party” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4584229253/#/

24. Create
“Wayside School Yearbook” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4813448752/

25. Display
“Fresh Art” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5871288708/
“Display case” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/5786548110/

26. Archive
“Honey” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4812844507/

27. Locate and Retrieve
“Hidden Meanings” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4964219378/

28. THREE STORIES...

29. Story 1: The Civil War Letters
“Author Nancy Wilson autographs ‘Shouts & Whispers’” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6122042810/

30. Story 2: The Balthazard Family
“The Balthazard Family c. 1900” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/4596049467/

31. Story 3: What the Waiter Remembered
“Our server at Canoe” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6180321390/

32. "Storytelling is among the oldest forms
of communication.
Storytelling is the commonality
of all human beings, in all places, in all times."
-Rives Collins

33. Create...Curate...
Celebrate
“The Journey Through the School of Awesomeness” by dmcordell http://www.flickr.com/photos/dmcordell/6265958737/

34. Diane Cordell
What I'm Thinking: http://dmcordell.blogspot.com/
What I'm Tweeting: http://twitter.com/dmcordell
My Photos: http://www.flickr.com/dmcordell/http://www.flickr.com/dmcordell/
My Slidedecks http://www.slideshare.net/diane/presentations