Storytelling is a powerful advocacy tool

In the past, when discussing, presenting and possibly defending the library to your board, municipal council or other funding bodies you may have relied on your plan of service and a pile of statistics to prove that money should be spent on the library and not elsewhere. 

Maybe so far this approach has worked just fine with your board and council, but what about those in the larger community?  How do they know about the great things your library is doing?  Can you convince them that the library is worth funding?

Simply reading off stats can send a weak message about the importance of library services to the viability of the community and no message at all about what librarians are able to do and how they can help assure a citizen’s right to know.

Storytelling is a powerful advocacy tool

Once you start looking for them, you will find stories about your library and the stories you find will enhance traditional advocacy methods by showing the impact that the library has on its’ users and the wider community though real life anecdotes. Great impact stories; stories that tell what happened after a patron left the library; can provide justification for change, innovation or funding opportunities. Remove jargon, acronyms and statistics and focus on real people and families.

What makes a good story?

• a good story is one you can relate to yourself
• a good story doesn't leave out any key details
• a good story is structured and can be followed easily
• a good story is real, touching and connects with others
• a good story is memorable and can be retold easily by others

(Source: Parkland Regional Library, Tip Sheet: How to Share Your Library's Stories, 2012)

Use your library's existing channels to find your patrons' stories.  Solicit stories from your Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages, put a notice in your newsletter or ask patrons individually.  If collecting stories for a specific purpose (like Snapshot Day or your library's upcoming anniversary celebration, for example) let patrons know why you want their stories because ultimately, people want to help.  

Ask the right questions - simply asking questions like "why did you come into the library today?" don't get at the heart of what impact the library has on people.  Ask questions like:

• How has the library helped you or your family?
• What are you doing in the library that is making a difference in your home, school, workplace or community?
• What your best memory of the library?
• Has a library changed your life in any way? (i.e. helped you find a job, helped with citizenship, etc.)

Be prepared to collect and share stories all year long (not just during special events like Snapshot Day).  Train your staff and board members to watch for potential stories unfolding or to listen for stories about the library out in the community.

Share the stories you have collected in your annual report, in brochures, newsletters and on Facebook.  Have fun collecting and sharing stories and if you need additional resources or have questions, contact Lauren Jessop (ljessop@chinookarch.ca).  

(Content of this post derived from a Chinook Arch Regional Library System training session entitled "Storytelling for Advocacy."  This session was developed by Lauren Jessop and Erin Baker)

LJ Movers and Shakers: Inspiration Guaranteed!

The twelfth annual Library Journal Movers & Shakers list rolled out on March 13, 2013. For those of you not familiar with it, the Movers list identifies and acknowledges emerging leaders in the library world for that year. In many ways, the list acts as a who’s who in libraries today and the future.
 
The list not only seems to be predictor of potential greatness within libraries, it also takes the temperature of the current library climate. Looking back through previous lists, I see many faces of well-known figures in today’s biblio-circles. Many of my favourite library bloggers and speakers have been previously named (Librarian in Black, Agnostic Maybe, John Bylberg, etc.) and, as such, I like to check out blogs of current winners if they have them. Categories within the list also tend to reflect broader trends in libraries and the world at large. For instance, the 2012 list contained a “Recession Busters” category, while the 2009 list had such labels as “Trendspotters” and “Tech Evangelists”.  Watching the list year after year, you can see interesting shifts in the library landscape over time
 
Whether you read it for the inspiring stories or the niche, pseudo celebritism, I would encourage you to check out LJ's list. People are doing amazing things in libraries these days and it is always interesting and informative to hear about the best of the best in our field! Happy reading!

Library Journal Movers & Shakers 2013

Statistical Literacy for Librarians

Last month I attended the University of Alberta Data Library’s Winter Institute on Statistical Literacy for Librarians (WISLL).  Despite my initial terror of statistics, I found WISLL to be a fun and valuable experience that I'd like to share with Chinook Arch!

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2004-10-14/

A Bit of Background - Data vs. Statistics

The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but Data and Statistics are different things. Data is unpublished, not display-ready and requires processing. Statistics are derived from data, they are presentation ready, published and present facts & figures. A statistic can’t be a statistic without data.

I like to think of data being the ingredients in the recipe – statistics the finished recipe. Just like poor ingredients will make a poor recipe, it’s hard to go wrong with good quality ingredients, the same goes for statisics. 


Types of Statistics

There are two types of statistics - official and unofficial. Official statistics come from government bodies like Statistics Canada or the UN. Unofficial statistics come from places like trade associations, marketing companies, academic institutions. Both are useful.

Why is statistical literacy so important?

Look around and you will notice stats are increasingly ubiquitous. Stats are everywhere, about everything. Open the newspaper, watch the news, follow a link on twitter and you will find some bit of information with a stat attached.  Not only are we seeing written statistics but with the growing popularity of data visualizations we are seeing more and more infographics. On the reference desk we can help our users to understand where these claims come from, and help guide them to the primary sources and data sources.  

When we are writing grants and annual reports understanding how to pull together quality stats from quality data is key. 

We can use stats to tell a story. 

Here is a fun example:

Just before Valentine’s Day I kept hearing talk of Lethbridge having been declared as one of Canada’s most romantic cities.  Let’s say you have a user come to you and ask:  Hey, I heard Lethbridge is one of the most romantic cities in Canada, is that true?

An initial goolgle search brings up these secondary sources – they will help you find the primary source.

Here is a link to a quick article from a local media source 94.1 CJOC.

This article ran in several Canadian publications:

The second article does well in explaining the who what and where of the statistical claims. Now that you know that the statistic came from - Amazon a bit of internet digging will bring you to the Amazon press release page (the primary source) 

So how did Amazon create the statistic of Lethbridge being the 10 most romantic city in Canada? 

“This list was compiled by comparing Amazon.ca sales data of romance novels and relationship books (Kindle books and print books), romantic comedy DVDs and a collection of romantic music CDs from Jan. 1, 2012 - Jan. 23, 2013 on a per capita basis in cities with more than 80,000 residents*. 

New for 2012, in addition to including CDs by B.C. crooner Michael Bublé, Amazon.ca expanded its musical search to include some additional voices of love.  They include the legendary Dean Martin, the baritone of Barry White, the sexy Luther Vandross, the neo-soul sounds of Maxwell and the newest R&B sensation Miguel. “ 

*Data for cities was based on Statistics Canada’s 2011 “Population and dwelling counts, for Canada and census subdivisions (municipalities).” (Link)”

Amazon is transparent in their explanation of where they got the data and how they used it to create the list. They used unofficial sources (their own sales data) and official sources (Stats Can) But does this really mean that Lethbridge is as romantic as Amazon claims? They certainly are using data and statistics to tell a story – if that story is quality is probably debatable. However, you now have the path back to information about the data that was used to create the statistic that you patron was asking about.

What do you think? Is Statistical Literacy and important component of Librarianship?