IN DEPTH
A role that is part
counsellor, social worker, listening ear, facilitator, events planner and friend...
CILIP President Paul Corney continues his series of Presidential Musings, with journalist and author Kate Thompson. Here she talks about her forthcoming book, The Little Wartime Library, and the parallels between librarianship during the Second World War and the pandemic.
IN March Twitter alerted me to an excellent article written by best-selling author Kate Thompson appearing in that day’s edition of The Guardian (
https://bit.ly/3xMUmFY).
It got me thinking, as I’d been heavily involved in my town’s response to Covid, so I tweeted:
“Hugely insightful piece from @katethompson380. I discovered during a recent call with a group of South West Libraries how valuable they have been to their respective communities during the pandemic.”
And Kate responded:
“Librarians have been invaluable during pandemic, reaching out to those who fall between cracks in society. Proving their skill, flexibility and compassion”
We set a date to Zoom. During that call I was struck by Kate’s professionalism, close attention to detail and an engaging manner. I’d seen similar traits in a former colleague (and highly acclaimed author) Michael Ridpath. There is something about great writers and their ability to transport the reader to the place or event being described because they capture granularity most of us miss.
36 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGTIAL Paul Corney is President of CILIP.
I digress. Kate came across as a woman who cared about people and the importance of community spaces where all walks of life can go. She shared stories with me of 100 interviews conducted as part of her forth- coming book, The Little Wartime Library. I was privileged to take an advance look and was drawn to this comment:
“When I started my interviews, the Covid-19 pandemic began and I saw first-hand how many librarians changed roles almost overnight to helping out with supporting the elderly and those in need, by dropping off food parcels, collecting medication and checking that those people who could so easily slip between the cracks in society, did not go ignored.”
July-August 2021
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