2023 Measures of Success Educator Impact Series
With special Guest
Dr. Kate McDowell
Please join us via Webex for the virtual closing keynote of the Measures of Success Educator Impact Series: Tuesday, March 21, 12-1 p.m.
Closing keynote:
"Data Storytelling Strategies"
By understanding storytelling dynamics, anyone can learn how to bring data stories to life. Data stories can help persuade decision-makers, but we need accessible tools for breaking down the dynamic process of storytelling into achievable steps. Based on ongoing research, this talk presents tools anyone can use, including:
- Introduction to storytelling thinking
- Classic advocacy arguments
- Evidence and forms of data for those arguments
- Narrative strategies that draw from common story structures
- Tone and tactics for engaging storytelling with different audience attitudes
One of the most critical things we can do to support institutions of higher education in challenging times is to be prepared, formally and in casual conversation, to tell a memorable data story about why they matter. This talk will guide you through the problems and practical possibilities of library data storytelling.
Speaker information:
Dr. Kate McDowell is an associate professor in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She teaches both storytelling and data storytelling courses and her research and publications are in the areas of storytelling as information research, social justice storytelling, and what library storytelling can teach the information sciences about data storytelling. Her projects engage contexts such as libraries, non-profit fundraising, health misinformation, social justice in libraries, and others. Dr. McDowell has worked with regional, national, and international nonprofits including the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO, part of WHO) and the Public Library Association (PLA). Her nationally-funded project Data Storytelling Toolkit for Librarians with co-PI Dr. Matthew Turk is under development. Her storytelling research has involved training collaborations with advancement with both the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the University of Illinois system (Chicago, Springfield), storytelling consulting work for multiple nonprofits including the 50th anniversary of the statewide Prairie Rivers Network that protects Illinois water, and storytelling workshops for the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI). She formerly served as interim associate dean for Academic Affairs and assistant dean for Student Affairs and has led multiple transformative projects for the School.