Stories and Storytelling: How Humans Become People

Authors

  • Steven L. Herb Penn State University

Abstract

The Fifth Follett Lecture, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University, 3 March 2009

Story is our most ancient history and storytelling our first means of communication, education, and entertainment. From the first cave paintings and musical rhythms to the spoken myths, legends, and folktales of all peoples; from the development of written tales, the creation of books, and the invention of the printing press to the twentieth century development of electronic story conveyances — film, radio, television, and the computer — story is the thread that ties and binds us to our history, our culture, and our family.

Author Biography

Steven L. Herb, Penn State University

Steven L. Herb is head of the Education and Behavioral Sciences Library and affiliate professor of Language, Culture and Society in the College of Education at Penn State University. Dr. Herb is also the director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. From 2007 to 2010, he held the Follett Chair in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University, the third professor to hold the appointment.

Herb’s research interests have focused on early childhood education, in particular, the role of libraries in fostering emergent literacy. He is the co-author of two children’s literature textbooks with his spouse and writing partner, Dr. Sara Willoughby–Herb, professor emerita of early childhood education at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania — Using Children’s Books in Preschool Settings (1994) and Connecting Fathers, Children, and Reading (2002), both published by Neal–Schuman.

Herb is a past president of the Association for Library Service to Children, the division of the American Library Association that has been the leading advocate for the literacy rights and literature choices for America’s children for over a century.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 & 2 (2011)

Section

Articles

License

World Libraries allows authors to maintain the copyright of their article or to give permission to World Libraries to hold the copyright. If contributors decide to maintain copyright, a Creative Commons license allows authors to determine how their work can be used. For more information on the types of licenses available, visit http://www.creativecommons.org/.

Authors submitting a paper to World Libraries do so with the understanding that Internet publishing is both an opportunity and a challenge. In this environment, authors and publishers do not always have the means to protect against unauthorized copying or editing of copyright-protected works.

World Libraries is a copyrighted product, and all rights are reserved worldwide. Permissions to use any materials appearing in World Libraries should be directed to Questions about World Libraries.

Downloads of specific portions of World Libraries articles are permitted for personal use only, not for commercial use or resale. Educational uses of World Libraries are permitted with permission of the authors of specific works appearing in World Libraries.

PRIVACY

World Libraries respects the privacy of both its readers and its contributors. To that end, World Libraries does not collect in its logs or other server tools the exact identities of its readers. World Libraries does not require its readers to sign in or to secure a unique ID or password. World Libraries does not use cookies.

World Libraries collects general information in its logs on the origins of users at the highest domain levels. Usage patterns are tracked in World Libraries to assist editors in making decisions about future content. In addition, this information is used for research on usage patterns to improve the site over time.

E-mail addresses used by World Libraries to notify readers of new issues are not disclosed to third parties.