I have been teleworking since last March, due to the pandemic, and as I reflect on librarianship as a profession during National Library Week (April 4 – 10, 2021), I consider how we as librarians have tried to serve our greater community and how this has challenged and enhanced our outreach initiatives and skills.
The field of library and information science is filled with professionals passionate about making a positive impact, and dedicating themselves to continuous learning.
As the amount of information available to end users has soared and new technologies have become available, the position of the librarian has changed. Today, there are many paths that individuals can take to explore a passion for library and information science.
Some of the most beautiful architecture in the world is found in libraries—which ensure that everyone in their communities can enjoy their amazing spaces. And even if you can’t visit a particular library in person, you may be able to explore its highlights virtually online.
The co-directors explain how the literary icon embodied both toxic masculinity and gender fluidity.
Ernest Hemingway. Photo illustration by Slate. Photo courtesy of Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick started working on their new docuseries about Ernest Hemingway almost seven years ago, when conversations about toxic masculinity and cancel culture were still at least a presidency away. But you’d be forgiven for thinking the series was a pandemic project, because Hemingway, and the conversations that take place within it, feel utterly of the moment.
From gender fluidity and mental illness to sexual misconduct and racism, today’s most charged topics are discussed at length in the series because they were part and parcel of the iconic, mercurial writer, whose own ex-wife Hadley Richardson once described as having so many sides to him that he defied geometry. Throughout the three-part, six-hour series, Hemingway is portrayed as both violent and tender, self-aware and self-aggrandizing, with an equal, outsize capacity for both joy and depthless depression.
It’s no wonder then why the writer Michael Katakis says at the start of the series that Hemingway the man is so much more interesting than the whiskey-doused, hypermasculine myth that obscures him. In separate interviews, Burns and Novick walked us through how making the film transformed the way they understand Hemingway—the man, the myth, and his literary legacy. Below, we’ve spliced together the two conversations, which have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Mike Smith/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images
This year’s National Library Week (April 4 – 10, 2021) is being celebrated with the theme “Welcome to Your Library,” which recognizes the importance of delivering library services beyond the traditional brick and mortar library, particularly during challenging times, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past year, we have seen libraries respond to patrons’ needs by providing curbside service and opening for school children needing internet access to complete homework assignments, as well as for seniors requiring computers to make vaccination appointments.
Some library workers have been recruited by their communities to serve as contact tracers because of their reference interviewing and organizational skills.
From the American Library Association: Today, the American Library Association (ALA) released its State of America’s Libraries Special Report: COVID-19 (PDF), a snapshot of the library communities’ resilience, determination, and innovation in unprecedented circumstances. The State of America’s Libraries report is released annually during National Library Week, April 4 – 10, and this year’s issue focuses on the impact of the novel coronavirus on all types of libraries during the previous calendar year.
