Igniting Data and Making Literacies: The Data Storytelling Challenge

In the spirit of International Love Data Week, York University Libraries launched its first Data Storytelling Challenge in the 2025-2026 academic year. Adding to the traditional data visualization competition, the Challenge invited students to explore data storytelling in any format, including both digital visualizations and data physicalizations. In addition to the submission component, students had the option to enter their projects into a curated and juried exhibition held in March 2026, featuring both physical and digital student works.

The decision to encourage all formats of data storytelling was informed by the recent opening of York University Libraries’ Makerspace at its new Markham campus. The Makerspace provides students with access to tools such as 3D printers, sewing machines, laser cutters, and other fabrication technologies, enabling them to create data stories using a wide range of materials and techniques.

The team behind the Challenge also believed that supporting diverse media—and framing the initiative as “data storytelling” rather than “data visualization”—would invite participation from students across disciplines and with varying levels of data experience. By foregrounding the idea that all data are human-made and shaped by decisions at every stage, and by pairing data work with digital and making literacies, the Challenge aimed to foster an experiential learning environment that encourages critical reflection, creativity, and deeper engagement with data.

This presentation will reflect on our experience of planning, launching, and hosting the Data Storytelling Challenge and exhibition for the first time. We will outline our key considerations; our lessons learned and share resources on how other institutions might develop a similar initiative.