First, the why.

“If you don’t tell your story first, someone else will.”
When you write your own story, you share your vision and select the elements that convey the vision most vividly. If you let someone else control the narrative, it will probably not be the picture you want to paint about your organization.

“Touch the heart to facilitate change.”
Facts, figures and dry logic don’t convince people to change. We all have “confirmation bias,” but stories can penetrate those entrenched beliefs.

“Stories are sticky.”
The brain is “neurologically organized to remember narratives” better than statistics and bullet lists. Even more so if the story engages the emotions of the audience.

“Stories build community.”
The concept of belonging to a community is powerful for people. When the library tells stories about its role in the community, it strengthens the ties among its members.

What makes a good story?

Most of us are not naturally gifted or trained as professional storytellers. Presenters Kate Marek and Chris Rippel both provided sound and reassuring advice for developing your ability to relate an effective story without formal training.

Kate outlined 7 basic ingredients for creating a good story:

1. Be authentic; speak from the heart; be yourself.
2. Use broad strokes; be accurate but not bogged down in detail.
3. Consider your audience and your goals.
4. Be brief; beware of TMI (too much information).
5. Be consistent.
6. Listen to others and to other stories.
7. Practice!

Chris analyzed some of the key characteristics of story that draw us in and compel us to listen. I recommend reading his full article on How to tell library stories. Some elements that may be surprising include:

• In a library story, the main character is the community member, with the library and staff as secondary characters. So it is not just a description of the good service provided by the library; it’s a story of change and a restoration of balance for the protagonist.
• A good story can be as short as 6-8 sentences. A “springboard story” presents a very short but evocative situation in order to lead in to longer discussion about an issue.
• There are situations for which a story does not need an ending. When the library is enlisting support for a new project or seeking funding, it is an effective strategy to engage the audience in the drama of the effort, asking them to participate in the positive resolution of the “heroic struggle.”

There’s much more to this story. To watch the entire webinar and connect to related resources, go to:
Organizational Storytelling for Librarians: Using Stories for Leadership, Community, and Advocacy

I am sure this is a bit of preaching to the choir, but high-quality access to technology in public libraries is critical for people to succeed in today’s world. Without access to the information and opportunities that exist online, some people in this country will not be able to do homework, look for employment, obtain health and wellness information or connect with their government, community or civic organizations. Libraries have taken on a critical role in many communities to provide access to these services, but we also know that there is room to improve. Sometimes we need a little help to make our case for the importance of these services, both internally and with stakeholders. That’s where the benchmarks come in.

These benchmarks will be the examples of high quality services and offerings that help to improve the lives of patrons and the communities that libraries serve. We’ve been collecting feedback from coalition members and also working closely with the library field, local decision makers and community leaders to create benchmarks that are relevant, actionable and that can align with local community priorities. The work to date has included hundreds of hours spent pouring through data, reading reports, conducting focus groups and synthesizing all of the information into a usable resource – and we’re not done yet.

The project will soon be launching at pilot sites in several states and will be available for broader public use later in 2012. One of the key elements of participating in the benchmarks is an assessment that a library will complete. In some cases, the assessment results will shine a light on a library that is doing great work and should be recognized. In other cases, a library may be able to use the assessment to acknowledge that there are areas that could use improvements. The benchmarks will also include a wealth of information and resources that can be used to help advocate for public access computing improvements to local funders and decision makers. We’re going to give you the tools to help implement ideas and find out how to make improvements that will have an impact.

Now this is clearly a bit a teaser, because we’re not quite ready to share the actual benchmarks just yet…there’s more cooking going on in the kitchen, and we’re a bunch of picky chefs. But, we’re looking forward to bringing you more details as work on the Edge initiative progresses – stay tuned!

Stay up to date on the latest information and register for the first in the series at: www.oclc.org/go/buildingbridges

Building Bridges #1: Principles of Advocacy
Wednesday, November 2, 2011 2:00 pm Eastern/11:00 am Pacific

Public library professionals know the importance of demonstrating their value to their local communities. Are you looking for inspiration to jump-start your own advocacy efforts? Join us to better understand how ongoing community advocacy supports the vital role your library plays in the community.

Speakers include:

• Mary Hirsch, Project Coordinator for PLA and Lynn Slawsky, Program Officer, Turning the Page 2.0, who will discuss PLA’s Turning the Page program
• Janet Sawaya, Program Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, who will discuss the foundation’s role in funding public library advocacy programs
• Jennifer Pearson, Senior Manager of Advocacy Programs, OCLC, who will discuss the Geek the Library community awareness program

Building Bridges #2: Community Outreach
Learn more about building successful community partnerships that really work.

Building Bridges #3: Communicating Your Value
Without sufficient funding, your service to your community can suffer. But you can effectively communicate your value to those who fund your library—learn how.

Building Bridges #4: Your Library’s Future
This look ahead will focus on (1) the critical services libraries should provide; (2) services that only the public library provides; and (3) communicating the library’s future plans to the community.

More information and registration »

Ioannis actually has a far-reaching vision to transform all public libraries in Greece. Beginning in his own small city of Veria, Macedonia (pop. 55,000), he champions the library as a “center for creativity, innovation, and learning.” As he described to us Veria Central PL’s approach to serving the unserved, building partnerships, and creating experiences, we noted that his vision and strategy aligns very closely with the IMLS 21st Century Skills Framework. IMLS is promoting the critical role of U.S. libraries and museums in preparing citizens for success, and emphasizes the importance of skills in creativity, innovation, technology literacy, self direction and lifelong learning. Ioannis’ library actively models and engages its users around those skills, striving to provide a user-centric library environment that offers up-to-date and new technology.

Their outstanding results led to Veria Central PL’s receipt of the 2010 Access to Learning Award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This award recognizes non-U.S. organizations for their efforts to connect people to information through free access to computers and the internet. Veria Central PL’s technology outreach programs, focus on children, and emphasis on digital libraries, has been recognized as a model of what can happen when a small public library focuses on meeting the needs of its users. Ioannis of all people understands the challenges around doing this, as illustrated by this equation he showed us:

Ioannis didn’t just present on the library’s past accomplishments, but also described their current strategy to reshape Veria Central PL to create experiences for “Generation Y,” renovate the building, foster civic engagement with offline and online social networking, and identify funding sources that will ensure long-term sustainability. But don’t forget that his vision goes beyond Veria: he is also working on a nationwide initiative to transform Greek public libraries into vibrant new resources sitting at the heart of their communities.

Please schedule an hour to listen to and view the presentation, and prepare to be inspired!

Panelists include:

• Sarah McHugh, Statewide Projects Librarian, Montana State Library, including Montana Memory Project.
• Amy Rudersdorf, Director of the Digital Information Management Program, State Library of North Carolina and lecturer at San Jose State University, School of Library & Information Science.
• Taylor Surface, Senior Product Manager, Digital Collection Services, OCLC.

Register and preview resources »