Today we start the second in our series of radical conversations, this time about the role of fiction and storytelling in knowledge creation. What is the role of narratives in the work of librarians, and what is the work of libraries in creating the stories of our communities?
How can librarians serve their communities in terms of fiction beyond a collection? Come join us, and make sure you give a listen to a conversation with the New Librarianship Collaborative and Jennifer Ilardi on lessons from Ferguson, MO.
Join the conversation via Twitter using the hashtag #NewLibFiction or at the conversation’s page:
https://davidlankes.org/?page_id=6757
Also, we’ll be pulling all of these discussions together for an event at ALA MidWinter in Chicago. Let us know if you can make it February 2, 2015.
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Yes, David, there clearly is a role for fiction and storytelling in knowledge creation, as you’ve proved by telling stories and citing personally-meaningful fiction in your brief introduction to this discussion. The Heath Brothers, in “Made to Stick,” clearly demonstrate the compelling and powerful nature of storytelling in a variety of settings (including training-teaching-learning), and the fact that so many of us feel as if we know characters whom we recognize as being fictional constructs from wonderful writers helps explain why we repeatedly return to those characters (at a personal level, I think of Easy Rawlins from Walter Mosley, Sharon McCone from Marcia Muller, and Deborah Knott from Margaret Maron as just a few examples from one very specific genre–mysteries); these are characters whose authors help us see the world a bit differently than we otherwise would, and, more importantly, inspire the sense of empathy and understanding of community that make us stronger participants in our own communities. There’s every reason to believe that fiction and storytelling are an important part of knowledge creation fostered by librarians and libraries, and I’m looking forward to seeing what you and others manage to document through this conversation and the book (of stories) you are currently creating.