Library Research Seminar 8: Telling Library Stories

Held on September 16-18, 2024 in Lexington, Kentucky, The Library Research Seminar 8 brought together library practitioners, scholars and students to share ideas and explore emerging research in the field of 21st century library and information science. It was a unique opportunity to gather with fellow professionals in a collegial setting and uncover new approaches for supporting evidence-based practice.

This seminar’s theme was Telling Library Stories. The stories included how to use statistics to tell compelling stories, how research stories reflect library practice, how library stories impact research and development and how libraries can tell stories to advocate for themselves and their communities. In Kentucky, storytelling is situated within strong connection to Appalachian storytelling traditions. Our goal was to connect scholars and librarians or other practitioners in joining to tell library stories and communicate library value.