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Librarian Kimberly Francisco writes: “When the COVID-19 crisis was in its infancy, publishers and individuals acted pretty quickly to put out ebooks about the virus or to help children understand and cope with the changes it brought to their lives. Now that it’s been over half a year that we’ve been living this way, though, physical books have started to make their way to the marketplace, including a handful of fiction.”

Stacked, Sept. 23
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Escape rooms in libraries are popular activities for families, providing free, interactive entertainment for people of all ages. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has put most in-person library programs on hold. Some librarians have found creative ways to safely continue the fun during the pandemic. McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, has set up a no-touch, outdoor escape room that community members can enjoy while maintaining social distancing.

I Love Libraries, Sept. 18
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Susan Shapiro writes: “Despite spiking coronavirus cases on university campuses across the country, everyone I knew hated remote learning. I could see why. It has certainly been my weirdest work experience in a quarter-century teaching college. I worked on a computer all day, so I’d taken the professorship to interact with live humans. What changed the tone was asking everyone to say where they were now and how they were holding up during the turmoil.”

Wired, Sept. 22
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The National Coalition Against Censorship is urging the Burbank (Calif.) Unified School District to retain several books in its curriculum and allow teachers to teach the books while they are under review. The challenged books include Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Cay, and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.

National Coalition against Censorship, Sept. 17
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A new report from Project Information Literacy examines US media coverage about COVID-19 and its visual representation across time and digital space during the early months of 2020. The report includes interactive data visualizations showing the results of a computational analysis of 125,696 articles from 66 news websites; a content analysis of 532 randomly selected news images from the top 12 outlets; and teaching and learning resources for librarians, educators, students, and journalists.

Project Information Literacy, Sept. 15
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Burkely Hermann writes: “Two years ago, the animated series Hilda premiered on Netflix, and a minor character called ‘The Librarian’ (voiced by Kaisa Hammurlund) quickly became a fan sensation. Although she only appears in about three minutes of the show’s first season, this feisty librarian has been mentioned in 20 fanfiction stories on Archive of Our Own and has a Tumblr blog dedicated to her. She has also been a subject of a lot of chatter among the fanbase, from Twitter to Reddit. The official Hilda Twitter account has described her as a mysterious librarian who has an unmatched, and extensive, ‘knowledge of cemetery records and mystical items.’”

I Love Libraries, Sept. 21
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In a first for IFLA, the 2021 World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) will be held online. Faced with continued uncertainty about the health, economic, and travel situation into 2021, it already seems clear that business-as-usual is not an option, the organization said in a September 22 statement.

IFLA, Sept. 22