Reimaging Public Libraries as Learning Communities: What Library Stories Can Tell Us

ABSTRACT

This article describes a study conducted in York County, Pennsylvania, on its countywide library system framed within the context of the statewide “Reimaging Libraries” Get Storied initiative, developed and marketed by organizational story consultant, Michael Margolis. Understood as an essential aspect of culture re-imaging and change, narratives were collected from library personnel by undergraduate students at Pennsylvania State University-York as part of a service-learning initiative (directed by the first author). Working closely with the library district consultant (second author), we assess the success of the initiative and make some recommendations for culture reimaging through the practice of storytelling.

KEYWORDS:

• Get Storied initiative
• marketing by storytelling
• marketing public libraries
• marketing through storytelling
• Michael Margolis
• reimaging libraries initiative
• reimaging library cultures
• undergraduates as researchers
• youth services marketing

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the following Pennsylvania State University-York students who served as co-researchers by collecting and transcribing the interviews: Maura Beaver, Emily Freiert, Gretchen Grim, Amy Hammonds, Savion Kirkland, Haley Krebs, Khristopher Mayberry, Aysha Shah, Nicole Shockley, Logan Steckel, Emily Thompson, Marthurie Vigal-Nunez, and Rebecca Weist.

Funding

The authors thank the Pennsylvania State University–York Advisory Board for supporting this project through a research development grant.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Pennsylvania State University–York Advisory Board for supporting this project through a research development grant.

Notes on contributors

Deborah Eicher-Catt

Deborah Eicher-Catt is professor and program coordinator of communication arts & sciences at Pennsylvania State University–York. She received her PhD in philosophy of communication and rhetoric from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1996.

Mina Edmondson

Mina Edmondson is the district consultant librarian for York County Libraries and Adams County Library System. She received her BA in letters, arts and sciences from Pennsylvania State University, 2006, and her MLS in library science from Clarion University of Pennsylvania, 2009.