IN DEPTH
Storytelling as a research method in library and information science
Anthony Adeloye brought storytelling into his research for his recently obtained PhD in librarianship at Aberystwyth University. Here Anthony, who is also a Chartered CILIP member and mentor, looks at the benefits, the challenges and how it could help your research project.
I HAVE been attracted to storytelling as a research method since I first worked as part of a research team on an oral history project with Bradford’s Heritage Recording Unit (Bradford Metropoli- tan Council) after my undergraduate studies.
Since then, I have come across many consummate ‘storytellers’ whose stories I often imagined to be a good source for research, focusing on local history projects or in the work place. I hold the view that storytelling as an activity can spearhead creative thinking, and invariably creation of knowledge, and need be encouraged as part of a research methodology.
The aim of this brief communication is two-fold. First, to reflect on the value of storytelling as a research method employed in the context of information seeking behaviour; and to ignite interest and indeed encourage others to explore its utility for their research in library and informa- tion science discipline. The crux of what I am attempting to achieve is to present story telling afresh to those who must use storytelling as research method and those who are willing to embrace it. Recently, I came across Ian Rodwell’s In Depth piece in Information Professional regarding stories that take place in buildings. (The real reason you may miss working in a build-
24 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
Anthony Adeloye is a librarian Chartered CILIP member and a CILIP mentor.
ing, Rodwell, 2022
https://tinyurl.com/2cdympkb). A different slant to my research.
Two notable observations about stories that impacted my research are:
l they have always permeated every fabric of human society (Moore, 2012);
l they are universal language, loaded with symbolisms and significance which allow us to unravel the mysteries of the world in which we live (see Rooney et al.,2016).
Indeed, it is widely argued that the ‘truth of a story lies not in the facts, but in the meaning.’ (see Gabriel,2000). So, in the final analysis, Gabriel and many other commentators have
December 2023
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