tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79074956327250971592024-03-12T18:54:57.959-06:00Kate McDowell on StorytellingStorytelling is powerful, joining the tale, the teller, and the audience together for a narrative journey. That journey takes place exactly where you are sitting or in a faraway realm that we can feel and know intimately but cannot directly experience. This blog is about storytelling and story listening in the life of one scholar.
Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comBlogger262125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-81543829940366558472023-04-21T08:17:00.004-06:002023-04-21T08:17:58.646-06:00Data Storytelling for Librarians, Augusta Baker Series 2023 I was so honored this week to give a lecture on Data Storytelling for Librarians as part of the Augusta Baker Lecture Series, organized and led by Dr. Nicole Cooke at the University of South Carolina. It was a talk to support library advocacy with data. You can learn more about this talk and the whole series here:https://sites.google.com/view/bakerlectures/baker-diversity-series/Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-36814113002288151252023-04-07T08:03:00.004-06:002023-04-07T08:04:27.377-06:00Bad Information: What's wrong with the story?New article in Information Matters is out! Here's a brief excerpt:"We all love a good story, and storytelling is a central way that human share experiences, from what happened at work or school today to the most meaningful moments of our lives. We tell stories about everything, from what we know to be true to what we fear might happen someday, and stories always involve emotional engagement. How Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-28312748726932553702023-03-25T09:38:00.003-06:002023-04-10T10:54:49.375-06:00ALA and the Data Storytelling Toolkit for LibrariansSo ALA sent out their email to invite members to come to ALA Annual in Chicago this year, and they selected five sessions to highlight. Ours is one of them! As the US struggles with an onslaught of book banning like we have not seen in my lifetime, our project, the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians, aims to get ahead of what we expect to come next: local battles over the existence of Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comLibrary and Information Science Building, 501 E Daniel St, Champaign, IL 61820, USA40.1076536 -88.23150649.7162933726706662 -123.3877564 70.499013827329335 -53.0752564tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-38308048983160060632023-03-10T10:11:00.003-06:002023-04-07T07:48:23.394-06:00AIVCA, the Anti-Infodemic Virtual Center for the Americas New article out today! Grateful to share the development of this Anti-Infodemic Virtual Center with Ian Brooks at the Center for Health Informatics. DOI https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2023.5After a two-hour WHO workshop on how to understand and use storytelling today, I'm reminded again of how much colleagues have helped support my well being simply by sharing the work of try to establish Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-74960477691100545322023-03-03T16:27:00.001-06:002023-03-03T16:27:38.463-06:00 Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians, early demo! Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians, early demo is available! This is more of a conceptual mapping than a completed product or project, in alignment with our two-year planning grant. But you can walk through a demo mockup here:https://uiucdstl.wixsite.com/uiucdstlThis work is a product of a year of collaboration with the Core Design Team, a team of 40 volunteer librarians, library dataKate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-75220131475515655122022-11-28T10:53:00.000-06:002022-11-28T10:53:03.524-06:00Data Storytelling for Librarians and the Data Storytelling Toolkit This fall, with Dr. Matt Turk and RA Xinhui Hu, we launched the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians project (https://imls.gov/grants/awarded/re-250094-ols-21) with a free webinar on 9/30 (recording publicly available at https://mediaspace.illinois.edu/media/t/1_69ag1gj0) and 675 registrants! The Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians (DSTL project website: https://Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-54379053524394786012021-10-27T08:42:00.003-06:002021-10-27T08:42:15.764-06:00Storytelling as InformationWe have loads of theories about the production of misinformation that focus on those generating it (manipulators, liars, propagandists), but so little that centers the audience. Such an exploration would point us toward its voluntary rapid circulation and the collective behaviors of sharing. The closest thing we've got is storytelling in terms of how gossip and rumors blaze across communities, Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-60847161255151456762020-05-02T08:23:00.000-06:002020-05-02T08:23:08.907-06:00Slow Fear, a Saturday StoryToday's Saturday story comes from my listening to many friends who are talking about not wanting to be afraid right now, and it features a postcard from The Courage Connection, an organization headed by my friend Elizabeth McGreal Cook who helps people survive domestic abuse.
Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-45822627137939764692020-04-25T10:45:00.000-06:002020-04-25T10:45:17.428-06:00Being Calm, a new Saturday StoryI took a couple of weeks off, but I'm back with a new Saturday Story, this one all about a story I heard this week about what staying calm can do and how it can be a gift for others.
The talk I mention can be found here:
https://www.awakin.org/calls/470/parker-palmer-with-mary-pipher-and-michael-penn/Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-52845052917903155182020-04-04T08:25:00.000-06:002020-04-04T08:25:15.727-06:00WaitingHere's this week's flawed, weird, but heartfelt video offering to my friends.
Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-45628078316914810462020-03-29T08:51:00.000-06:002020-03-29T08:51:11.937-06:00Digging Deep (Storytelling to Sustain Us)
Digging Deep
It's gardening time and covid-19 time, all at once. Today the winds are a constant whistle and howl here in the flat midwest, though yesterday it was warm and rainy. March is going out like a lion.
This week, I came as I was. In the previous videos I had dressed up more or less as I would be for teaching. But, with so many home and emotionally exhausted, it felt more authentic Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-52819142008246423362020-03-23T16:28:00.001-06:002020-03-23T16:28:30.061-06:00Storytelling to Sustain UsHere we are in March 2020, and if we had told ourselves that we'd be sheltering in place and wondering how to get to the grocery store a month ago, we would have looked at ourselves very oddly. And yet here we are.
I've been trying some experiments with live video on facebook. It started this last weekend, when I couldn't sleep on Friday night. I just kept thinking about how much we need to Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-50777026075810617562018-10-22T13:16:00.000-06:002018-10-22T13:16:02.448-06:00Understanding Helpers: from folklore to nonprofits
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Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-80749604569299649032018-08-03T09:54:00.002-06:002018-08-03T09:54:30.806-06:00Teaching Storytelling: Example AssignmentsIn a short paper for the journal Education for Information, called "Storytelling as Non-Textual Pedagogy," I describe some of my course themes, related assignments, and assessments for those assignments. This blog post offers a quick look at three of the assignments for my storytelling courses to augment that forthcoming paper.
Three assignments:
1. Future File assignment
2. Storytelling in Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-68449770352047789062018-07-18T16:45:00.002-06:002018-07-18T17:07:56.491-06:00Story Before Storage"Story before storage" has become my catchphrase for addressing a big issue with nonprofit data. In my consulting work, I've seen this problem over and over in data collection approaches used by nonprofits. The problem is that nonprofits are collecting and storing data that they have never told as a story or used to connect with stakeholders.
When we say "data-driven decision making," there is Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-80993741850958608612017-11-20T16:28:00.001-06:002017-11-20T16:28:11.295-06:00Storytelling Your Career: Finding the Stories
Storytelling Your Career: Finding the Stories
“But I don’t have any stories!” As a storytelling professor, I’ve heard this many times, and every time I have the same thoughts: everyone has stories, but some people just haven’t noticed them or developed them yet. While we tell stories every day, we may not think of them as such, nor do we structure them in ways that would make sense beyond ourKate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-69837922137055706752017-10-30T07:01:00.002-06:002017-10-30T07:01:52.042-06:00Storytelling Your Career: The Basics
Sometimes the
most basic forms of creativity are the most difficult to master. For many of
us, this comes up when we attempt to tell the story of our career, whether aspirationally
or in retrospect. In forms such as cover letters, personal statements, or research/teaching
statements, we strive to mobilize our stories. We attempts to go beyond flat descriptions of
our goals or Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-42216620592596279192017-04-20T07:41:00.001-06:002017-04-20T07:41:15.120-06:00From Trouble to Struggle
If you want to tell a story from your life,
Donald Davis says: look for trouble. I've been talking with workshop
participants lately about person, place, and problem as a basic set of
necessary (but not necessarily sufficient) story elements.(1) The trouble comes
with this word, "problem." Sometimes we tell stories that have an
obvious problem, where we or the protagonist encounter an Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-2011321370624592262017-01-24T11:52:00.001-06:002017-01-24T11:52:31.438-06:00Storytelling for AdvancementFor those not in the know, Advancement was formerly Development, and Development was formerly Fundraising. And so fundamentally, when we talk about storytelling in advancement, we're talking about activities that help support fundraising. But names are important, and these name changes are meaningful in terms of what fundraising has come to mean over time. In the long term, fundraising means Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-52443299562574875502017-01-04T15:34:00.001-06:002017-01-04T15:34:29.277-06:00Ira Glass on StorytellingThese links are here as viewing shortcuts for my storytelling courses, but let me say that if you are interested in telling stories well, then this 4-part 17-minute-total set of videos featuring Ira Glass of This American Life is well worth your time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pFI9UuC_fc&index=1&list=PLE108783228F1E008
Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-39279219717509602342017-01-04T15:19:00.003-06:002018-01-28T20:43:17.601-06:00Finding Stories to TellFor the tenth year, nearly rounding out a decade, I am preparing to teach a graduate seminar in Storytelling. This course requires many kinds of skills, from public speaking to understanding audiences and much more, but the first skill that every student must acquire is the ability to find stories to tell. Specifically, for their first stories, each student must acquire the ability to find Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-52313913118489849112016-12-08T11:07:00.002-06:002016-12-08T12:16:51.258-06:00What Storytelling Is (Not)
Everybody is talking about "storytelling"
lately...
When you hear the word "storytelling" so much, it
seems like anything and everything can be storytelling. But it's important to
define it so you know what I'm talking about. As written previously, I define
storytelling as a dynamic exchange between the tale, the teller, and the
audience. Understanding what is not storytelling--according to Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-12303132379921712222016-11-07T09:16:00.001-06:002016-11-07T09:17:59.578-06:00Story Across Organizations
What happens when stories are doing translation work between organizations? What does it mean when a story has to travel between different groups? How is inter-organizational storytelling a tool for coordination, collaboration, and leveraging collective resources? To understand how storytelling might work in these contexts, we have to back up and think about what these contexts are.
In my (Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-82615726068743067472016-09-21T10:57:00.002-06:002016-11-28T17:45:05.407-06:00What I mean by "Storytelling"I've noticed that there are two common definitions of "storytelling" floating around. The most common one is "the way you tell a story." In other words, it's all about the teller and the tale. There are scads of books about plot construction, screenplay writing, and other ways of telling stories. They cover every possible medium. So when people come to my storytelling workshops, they often expectKate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7907495632725097159.post-78502659322064757162016-09-13T09:46:00.002-06:002017-06-12T10:22:56.943-06:00Storytelling at Work
The real work of storytelling is not just talking, telling, or even framing the tale. It's knowing what to ask and when to listen.
I'm launching a new research project today, and I'm hoping to talk with many of you who are reading this in the course of this research. The project is called Storytelling at Work, and it's about understanding how storytelling matters in the workplace. I hope to Kate McDowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08724322280816661983noreply@blogger.com