What’s your story?
Whether you’re engaged in strategic planning, evaluating an initiative, or trying to connect with community, stories can be a powerful tool to contextualize data and inspire action.
Storytelling for Information Professionals will explore the place for stories within our practice. This event is right for you if…
…you want to demonstrate the impact of a program or policy at your institution.
…you’ve identified a need in your community and you’re searching for an effective way to mobilize partners.
…you’re looking for a meaningful way to reflect on your own values and professional practice.
…you want to make sense of your community’s information needs.
…you have a story to tell!
The event will feature a workshop led by Dr. Kate McDowell; interactive sessions to hone your storytelling skills; and a panel to hear how other practitioners are leveraging stories in their institutions.
When: January 19th, 2024 from 10am – 3:30pm (lunch will be provided)
Where: Simon Fraser University, Harbour Centre Room 7000
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3
Accessibility information: HC Room 7000 is accessible via elevator and has accessible seating in the first row (room layout). It is on the 7th floor of Harbour Centre. Wheelchair accessible washrooms, including accessible single stall gender neutral bathrooms, are on the 2nd floor.
Masks are encouraged/welcome at this event.
Agenda*
- 10:00-10:30 am: Registration and morning coffee
- 10:30-10:45 am: Welcome and Land acknowledgment
- 10:45-11:30 am: Keynote presentation: Goals, Motivations, and Successes: Library (Data) Storytelling
- 11:30 am-12:15 pm: Interactive session
- 12:15 pm-1:00 pm: Lunch
- 1:00-2:15 pm: Panel: Storytelling in context
- 2:15-2:25 pm: Break
- 2:30-3:15 pm: Interactive session
- 3:15-3:30 pm: Wrap up and next steps
*Subject to change
About our speakers:
Dr. Kate McDowell | Keynote Presentation
Dr. Kate McDowell focuses on storytelling as information research, social justice storytelling, and how the history of library storytelling can enhance contemporary data storytelling. Her writing appears in Library Quarterly, College and Research Libraries, and JASIST, where her article Storytelling wisdom: Story, information, and DIKW theorizes storytelling as a fundamental information form. She advises regional, national, and international nonprofits, including work with the World Health Organization on storytelling responses to online health misinformation. McDowell leads the nationally-funded Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians, currently in development to equip public libraries with the narrative tools they need to thrive in the data-driven era. McDowell is an associate professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA. Her teaching on both storytelling and data storytelling was internationally celebrated with the ASIS&T Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award in 2022.
Elizabeth Shaffer | Panelist
Elizabeth Shaffer’s research questions how information policy, practices and systems emerge and evolve in contemporary digital spaces, with particular attention to social justice issues, impacts of colonialism, anti/de-colonial research and pedagogies, and collections that document traumatic human events. Through critical enquiry, Elizabeth’s current research brings together Black Studies and archival research to understand memory production and archives as sites of contestation.
Jackie Wong | Panelist
Jackie Wong is a senior editor with The Tyee, an independent online news magazine for B.C. Jackie has worked in journalism, publishing, education and in non-profits for 15 years, and she has previously worked as a reporter, writing instructor and facilitator. She lives with her family in Vancouver, B.C.
Ebony Magnus | Panelist
Ebony Magnus (she/her) is the Associate Dean, Academic Engagement at SFU Library. In this role, she works with several exceptional teams, including liaison librarians, learning & instructional services, access services, the student learning commons, and the community scholars program. She is also responsible for library-wide leadership on accessibility.
Matt Huculak | Panelist
Dr. J. Matthew Huculak is Head of Advanced Research Services & Digital Scholarship Librarian at the University of Victoria Libraries. He holds a PhD in English and an MLIS with a concentration on archives and preservation. His research explores ethics of trauma-informed research & archival practices. He is the Data and Media Director for the Visual Storytelling and Graphic Art in Genocide and Human Rights Education Project (SSHRC Partnership Grant) and was the founding Managing Editor and co-designer of Modernism/modernity’s Print Plus platform, which won the Association of American Publishers 2019 PROSE Award for “Innovation in Publishing.” https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2717-1112
The event is presented by the Supporting Transparent & Open Research Engagement & Exchange (STOREE) project.