Storytelling as a path to funding

Ever since my days as a wandering poet, I've believed in the power of story. 

As I was hitchhiking around the country, I once wandered into a biker bar in Phoenix. Being young, poor, and desperate, I asked the bartender if I could give a 45 minute poetry reading. In exchange, if I could hold the attention of the customers, could I have a pitcher of beer and a pizza?

The bartender actually snorted. "You're going to read poetry to this crowd? This I gotta see!"

I not only got my beer and pizza (after an hour of performance), I got lots of deeply insightful comments from the audience. I say this not because bikers have the souls of poets (some do!), but because I learned, as I knocked about and gave readings, that dense and deeply allusive verse (academic poetry) left most folks cold. What they wanted were stories. So my poetry tended toward dramatic narratives. The closer I got to an authentic experience, the more it resonated. 

The same is true of library stories. I have long thought it ironic that libraries collect everyone else's stories (fiction and non-fiction), and ignore the compelling tales that occur every single day in our buildings or (now) through our many online offerings. I also couldn't help but notice that libraries--that the public sector generally--was losing public mindshare and support. It worries me a lot.

A few years ago now, George Morse, a retired economics professor who relocated from Minnesota to Maine, contacted me about a couple articles I wrote concerning storytelling as a form of advocacy, and a video. He'd teamed up with Jane Haskell, an extension services emeritus professor, to do a series of workshops for Maine libraries focusing on OCLC research, and about combining stories with "public value" statements as a way to shift taxpayer thinking.

Morse and Haskell cite these efforts of mine: 

• Keeping Our Message Simple. (May 2011)
• How to Tell a Library Story. (March, 2017)
• Advocacy and the Power of Narrative: Storytelling as a fundraising tool. (October 2018)

But if my work was the impetus (which was itself predicated on the work of many others), Morse and Haskell took it many levels deeper.

And I'm very pleased to report that they have chosen to make their stunning work available, for free, to anybody who wants it.

As Morse puts it, "The first guidebook, entitled 'Library Storytelling Team Guidebook,' deals with the organizational aspects of doing a long-term storytelling in order to shift the public discussion from 'tax burden' to ‘libraries are a smart investment.'”   It’s available at https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/extension_business/4

"The second guidebook, entitled 'Reporting Library Advocacy Stories to Increase Funding: Guidebook for Story Reporters,' provides tips from other references. For example, how can a person reporting a story make it authentic? The entire paper is organized around [the] 2018 paper plus the rationale and method of adding public value statement. This paper also includes empirical evidence that the ‘hero’s journey’ approach .... is effective in increasing funding."  It’s available at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/extension_business/3.

As the OCLC reports have made clear over the years, old school advocacy isn't working. This might.

I am deeply honored to be cited by Morse and Haskell. But I am even more appreciative of the thoughtful, well-researched, and generous contributions to librarianship by two people who don't happen to be librarians, but have given a lot to us.

I strongly recommend review of the works by directors and library boards around the country. And many, many thanks to Morse and Haskell!