Associate Professor Kate McDowell has been awarded a $578,677 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS grant RE-256709-OLS-24), under the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, which supports “developing a diverse workforce of librarians to better meet the changing learning and information needs of the American public by enhancing the training and professional development of librarians, developing faculty and library leaders, and recruiting and educating the next generation of librarians.”
The three-year grant is an extension of the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians project, which helps librarians present data in story form using narrative strategies. The new project, “Implementing the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Libraries,” is a collaboration with the Public Library Association (PLA) that will combine PLA Benchmark: Library Metrics and Trends, a tool for data-driven planning and advocacy in public libraries, with innovative data storytelling instruction and lessons learned from the original project. Assistant Professor Matthew Turk and Teaching Assistant Professor Jill Naiman will serve as co-principal investigators.
According to McDowell, while libraries have access to more data tools than ever, they face the challenge of translating data into stories that resonate with key stakeholders and demonstrate the value and impact of library services for their communities.
“Libraries are more effective when library staff understand and serve real, measurable community needs. Being able to better tell the story of their work will, in turn, help libraries secure funding and resources to continue to serve their communities into the future,” said McDowell. “The Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians makes the connection between data and the stories that can have real impact.”
McDowell’s storytelling research has involved training collaborations with advancement staff both at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois system; storytelling consulting work for multiple nonprofits, including the 50th anniversary of the statewide Prairie Rivers Network that protects Illinois water; and storytelling lectures for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). McDowell researches and publishes in the areas of storytelling at work, social justice storytelling, and what library storytelling can teach the information sciences about data storytelling. She holds both an MS and PhD in library and information science from Illinois.
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