Virus-Responsive Design--In the age of COVID-19, architects merge future-facing innovations with present-day needs by Lara Ewen   Traci Engel Lesneski, CEO and principal at Minneapolis-based national architecture firm MSR Design, which has worked with hundreds of libraries across the country, says libraries are ideal spaces for innovative design solutions.  “It’s not a stretch to think about the ways that libraries have modeled what’s next in the world,” she says.  “Libraries can talk to the public about how important these things are and advocate [for them].  They can provide hands-on learning and access to certain technologies that people don’t have access to in their everyday lives.”  Yet libraries have had to find new ways to provide that access.  “[COVID-19] is aggravating the digital divide,” says Susan Nemitz, director of Santa Cruz (Calif.) Public Libraries (SCPL).  “There are a number of people who don’t have access to the internet and computers, because we haven’t opened up yet.”  She says that effective design solutions will have to bridge not just physical and digital distance, but socioeconomic distance as well.  “We find that, more and more, our community is isolated,” she says.  “And we’ve been moving away from being a warehouse of books to being a social connector.”  Nemitz, whose library system passed a $67 million bond issue to replace and remodel all 10 of its buildings before the pandemic hit, says she’s had to reimagine her library’s mission.  “The COVID crisis has thrown a wrench into who we are and what we believe,” she says.  “Do we build our buildings for the situation we’re in now, or the situation in the long run?”  The answer may be both.  “This will not last forever,” says Amanda Markovic, architect and associate principal at GBBN Architects, a multinational architecture and interior design firm that has built multiple libraries and civic spaces around the country.  “But there’s a possibility that it will happen again.  So I think [design] is about ensuring there’s flexibility, making sure there aren’t as many hard walls in these spaces to allow for the expansion and contraction [of our spaces] that will be necessary when these things arise.”  Libraries that were in the process of renovating before COVID- 19 almost immediately pivoted, repurposing certain design features to address the new normal.  “There have been some fortunate coincidences that were not intended to be in reaction to a pandemic but that we can use,” says Markovic.  “For instance, at Baldwin Borough Public Library [in Pittsburgh], we put casters on the stacks to make them easy to move around.  We can now use them to create little pods.  And at Carnegie Library [of Pittsburgh], we’re implementing cleanable surfaces and discussing an HVAC system that allows for increased ventilation.”  Designers say that the COVID-19 pandemic is an opportunity not just to modify libraries but to improve them for future use.  “This is about so much more than having less seating and different planning,” says Cindy Kaufman, principal associate at Holt Architects, a New York design firm with offices in Syracuse and Ithaca that has worked on several university libraries and learning spaces.  “It’s about human-environmental interactions, and how can we affect human behavior with simple design tools.  In my mind, it’s imagery and spatial reconfiguration that can help people feel more [connected] to each other.  Buildings will need to create more usable spaces for people to spread out more, and users need to trust the staff.”  Lesneski says that a lot of existing built environments have barriers that hinder inclusivity at multiple levels, including racially and socioeconomically.  She cites a discussion moderated by the Canadian Urban Institute.  Ironically, a shift to more equitable spaces will happen because the virus has made decision makers “uncomfortable,” she says.  “We [should] remember to expand our lens so that it’s not just about the pandemic but also a long-term overhaul.”  Read much more at https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2020/09/01/virus-responsive-library-design/

The Upper West Side’s Hungarian Pastry Shop Is Open for Everything by Rebecca Firkser   Perhaps the constant references to the shop in classic New York movies like Husbands and Wives and TV shows (someone recently reminded Binioris of a scene in Gossip Girl where a character was walking with a Hungarian Pastry Shop coffee cup), also keep the space packed.  It’s popular among the off-screen crowd as well.  Not only do authors based in the neighborhood cite the place as one of their favorites to write—the author Nathan Englander notes in his Grub Street Diet that he used to hang there all day—the shop actually turns up in the work from time to time—Binioris noted that a recent mention in a Norwegian novel has led to a huge uptick in Norwegian visitors.  “We get a lot of reading tourists,” he says.  Though the dimly lit shop makes a romantic setting for a story, for the most part writers seem to be drawn to the space for the camaraderie.  “I’ve always enjoyed the buzz of other people around me doing the thing I’m doing,” the cookbook author Julia Turshen, who regularly worked at the shop while attending Barnard College, told me.  “Surrounded by other writers with their cookies and cakes and endless cups, my time at the Hungarian Pastry Shop made me feel like I might actually be able to call myself a writer.”  The author Ta-Nehisi Coates echoed Turshen’s thoughts, explaining to Vanity Fair that he used to regularly write at the shop during the decade he spent writing his first novel—before people started tweeting about it.  Coates developed a quiet friendship with another author, Julie Otsuka, who often works in a corner of the shop:  the two would enjoy each other’s company from their respective tables.  “This was a place,” he says, “where a writer could just work.”  https://www.ediblemanhattan.com/eat/the-upper-west-sides-hungarian-pastry-shop-is-open-for-everything/

THREE PUBLISHING FAIRS IN THE SAME EVENT IN OCTOBER 2020  Three major Roman literary initiatives:  Literature Festival in October 2020 is reborn under a new artistic direction and with an entirely new project--Libri Come and Più Libri Più Liberi.  The great fair of small and medium publishing from 2021 will then return to the Cloud.  "It will be an unrepeatable event for Rome, Lazio and Italy, after the difficult months due to the health emergency" writes the deputy mayor of Rome Luca Bergamo on his Facebook page.  The event will welcome about 200 publishers with a rich calendar of meetings with Italian and foreign authors, which will take place both in presence and in streaming thanks to the use of digital platforms, giving the opportunity to participate even to those who cannot go to Rome in those days.  The general program will be curated by an editorial committee composed of Silvia Barbagallo, Andrea Cusumano, Michele De Mieri, Lea Iandiorio, Rosa Polacco and Marino Sinibaldi.  Organized by AIE (Italian Publishers Association), Institution of Libraries of Rome and Fondazione Musica per Roma in collaboration with the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum and Zètema Progetto Cultura, Insieme it is promoted by Mibact--Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and for Tourism.  Giulia Ronchi  https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=https://www.artribune.com/editoria/2020/08/insieme-roma-evento-editoria-2020/&prev=search&pto=aue 

Charles Goodyear was born in in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1800 and after learning the hardware business from his father concentrated on manufacturing and selling farm equipment.  By 1829 he was a wealthy businessman but poor health and some bad investments quickly took that away.  Then in 1931 Goodyear learned about gum elastic and became obsessed with putting it to use.  Raw gum was too sticky to be of much use at the time but he was sure there would be a way to overcome that.  He spent years experimenting with various minerals and chemicals and eventually discovered that the answer was to heat a mixture of gum and sulfur with steam to about 270 degrees Fahrenheit, which became known as vulcanizing.  His obsession to make new rubber products left him broke and destitute when he died in 1860.  Nearly 40 years later, in 1898, a man by the name of Frank Seiberling heard about Goodyear's vulcanizing process and decided to make tires for the new horseless carriage market.  Seiberling decided to honor Goodyear by calling his new business The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.  https://www.antiquecar.com/articles/automobile-tires.php 

On some level, little libraries have always existed.  The idea is simple and timeless: boxes, tables and stoops loaded up with free books.  The philosophy behind them is also simple:  Take a book, leave a book.  Since the 2009 establishment of Little Free Library, the official nonprofit organization that maps and sells these public bookshelves, charters have flourished.  The group lists more than 100,000 registered libraries in 108 countries.  The little library has evolved during the pandemic to take on new functions.  Many now offer hand sanitizer, toilet paper and other necessary items.  Some have even removed books completely to become neighborhood pantries.  But books always have a way of coming back.  Inglewood resident Maygan Orr runs a “blessing box,” containing nonperishable foods and pandemic supplies.  Recently, the contents of the box have been changing.  “I’ve noticed that people have not only been donating food,” Orr wrote in an email, “but also DVDs, books and informational materials from the Inglewood Public Library.   We’re keeping people well-fed and well-read!”  Adriana E. Ramirez  https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2020-08-20/little-free-libraries-in-the-time-of-covid   

Banned Book Week runs September 27-October 3 in 2020.  Banned Books Week was founded in 1982 by prominent First Amendment and library activist Judith Krug.  Krug said that the Association of American Publishers contacted her with ideas to bring banned books "to the attention of the American public" after a "slew of books" had been banned that year.  Krug relayed the information to the American Library Association's Intellectual Freedom Committee and "six weeks later we celebrated the first Banned Books Week."  Amnesty International also celebrates Banned Books Week by directing attention to individuals "persecuted because of the writings that they produce, circulate or read."   Mitchell Muncy, writing in The Wall Street Journal, has alleged that the censorship being protested in the event does not exist, and that books are not banned in the United States.  Camila Alire, a former president of the ALA, responded that Banned Books Week highlights "the hundreds of documented attempts to suppress access to information that take place each year across the U.S.," and that "when the library is asked to restrict access for others, that does indeed reflect an attempt at censorship."  Read more and link to books banned by governments at   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_Books_Week 

Recognizing the significance of access to information, the 74th UN General Assembly proclaimed 28 September as the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI) at the UN level in October 2019.  The day had been proclaimed by the UNESCO General Conference in 2015, following the adoption of the 38 C/Resolution 57 declaring 28 September of every year as International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI).  IDUAI 2020 will be focus on to the right to information in times of crisis and on the advantages of having constitutional, statutory and/or policy guarantees for public access to information to save lives, build trust and help the formulation of sustainable policies through and beyond the COVID-19 crisis.  https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/accesstoinformationday   

 http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2263  September 28, 2020