Tag Archives: Pandemic

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Memories & History, Politics, Science & Health, Times They Are A-Changing, Web & Technology

How San Franciscans use their libraries is shifting dramatically | San Francisco Chronicle

By Nami Sumida, Dec. 31, 2022

The San Francisco Public Library gets crowded during Night of Ideas a month before the pandemic. Data from the library show a gradual recovery of circulation, library visits and programming to pre-pandemic levels. Jana Asenbrennerova, Freelance / Special to The Chronicle

With library buildings closed, book talks moved online and millions of fewer items checked out, the pandemic transformed San Francisco’s public libraries.

Two and a half years later, all library branches are now open and operating at pre-COVID hours and circulation has nearly bounced back from its pandemic low.

But despite these recoveries, some pandemic changes remain: Visitor numbers are still low, there are fewer in-person programs and borrowing habits, which shifted more digitally during the pandemic, have yet to shift back.

Source: How San Franciscans use their libraries is shifting dramatically

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Science & Health

How the pandemic affected our approach to reading and interpretation of books | The Conversation

Published: December 6, 2022 12.24pm EST, By Ben Davies and Christina Lupton

GoodStudio/Shutterstock

During the pandemic, reading took on new meaning. People turned to books for comfort. Some read to confront difficult issues, especially following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. Others used reading as a way to care for their children in locked-down houses.

Sales figures and lending data showed a huge spike in people buying and borrowing books. We wanted to follow the stories of real readers, and our new book uses a rare combination of literary analysis and qualitative interviewing to capture these dynamics of reception.

While many commentators at the beginning of the pandemic endorsed reading as a straightforward way to relax, our readers showed that the practice morphed and took on new forms and meanings.

Based on hundreds of survey responses and hours of reader interviews from Denmark and the UK, the study makes the interpretation of literature something dynamic and ongoing. And it suggests that readers themselves are agents of meaning, even in the case of novels that seem the most stable in our culture.

Source: How the pandemic affected our approach to reading and interpretation of books

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Libraries, Politics, Web & Technology

Quitting Time | American Libraries Magazine

The pandemic is exacerbating attrition among library workers

By Lara Ewen | June 1, 2022

*Editor’s note: All librarian names have been changed to protect their privacy.

Illustration: ©Nuthawut/Adobe Stock

Alex* can pinpoint the day she knew she was done with library work. “I was doing a lot of extra emotional support for people who didn’t have anybody else,” says the public librarian, who is disabled and has been working near a large Midwestern city for almost 20 years.

She says the last two years have been particularly difficult. “There was a day when I realized nothing was ever enough,” says Alex, who is in the process of leaving the field. “They always asked for more. I was so worn down by it all.”

The burnout began earlier for Chris. “Even before the pandemic started, I’d been feeling increasingly ambivalent,” says the Midwest-based academic librarian who left her associate director position in fall 2021.

“Then we had the pandemic, which required libraries to make a ton of changes. I wanted to work with my community, and I didn’t have any energy for that.”

Source: Quitting Time | American Libraries Magazine

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Current Affairs, Politics, Science & Health

On Books: Read Dangerously, In the Margins, Write for Your Life : NPR

By Sharmila Mukherjee, May 13, 2022

Meghan Collins Sullivan/NPR

What does this perilous time of disease and destruction ask of us as readers and writers?

Three new books spotlight the power of the written word to foster creative responses to confinement and oppression — and to inspire deep change within us.

Azar Nafisi’s Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times, Elena Ferrante’s In The Margins: On The Pleasures of Reading and Writing and Anna Quindlen’s Write for Your Life are all about the transformative possibilities that underlie political, social and personal crisis.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: On Books: Read Dangerously, In the Margins, Write for Your Life : NPR

Current Affairs, Science & Health

Who should get a second Covid-19 vaccine booster shot — and when? – Vox

There is no right or wrong answer on getting another booster shot. Here’s what to consider.

By Dylan Scott@dylanlscott dylan.scott@vox.com, Mar 31, 2022, 2:30pm EDT

The Biden administration has approved a fourth Covid-19 vaccine shot for all Americans over age 50 and for all adults who are immunocompromised.
Michael Nagle/Xinhua via Getty Images

The Biden administration has approved a fourth Covid-19 vaccine shot for all Americans over age 50 and for all adults who are immunocompromised.

But does that mean everybody who is eligible should rush out to their pharmacy or primary care doctor to get it?

The short answer is that it depends — on both your personal risk and what’s happening with the pandemic.

Making things even more perplexing, the public health guidance has become more nuanced as more booster shots are authorized.

Whereas public health experts were unified in urging people to get their first and second shots last year, they were more divided about third shots when those were approved late last year, at least until the emerging omicron wave made the first round of boosters more urgent.

Source: Who should get a second Covid-19 vaccine booster shot — and when? – Vox

Arts & Humanities, Books & Reading, Libraries, San Diego, Web & Technology

Libraries Find New Roles as Pandemic Lingers — Voice of San Diego

As Omicron surge slows reopening process, new online services such as portable Wi-Fi access are hot

By Randy Dotinga,

Misty Jones, seen here on Jan. 26, 2022, is the director for the San Diego Public Library and oversees the Central Library and 35 branches. / Photo by Adriana Heldiz

San Diego’s head librarian Misty Jones has a lot of numbers on her mind these days, and not just the Dewey Decimal System.

Residents just besieged branches to snap up 20,000 rapid covid tests, 174 of 600 library jobs are open and need filling, and patrons are eagerly checking out 2,000 portable Wi-Fi hotspots.

And then there are the statistics that reveal the size of the sprawling system that Jones oversees. Before the pandemic, the San Diego library system had the nation’s eighth-largest collection and ninth-largest number of visitors despite being one of the least-funded of the top 25 libraries in the U.S.

Editor’s Note: Read more, see link below for original item…

Source: Libraries Find New Roles as Pandemic Lingers — Voice of San Diego