Back Talk - Rip Van Winkle Returns to Charleston

The issues at Charleston Conference included the new focus on post-COVID realities and the renewed challenges of inclusiveness and equity, and Okerson learned a lot about what she'd missed during her long nap at the Conference. Keynote speaker and futurist Paul Saffo -- entirely virtual, beamed in from, where else, Silicon Valley, talked about how librarians can learn to think like a civilization, while Joy Connolly -- the one with her first name up in lights in Marion Square -- came from the American Council of Learned Societies to tell people to think different and reviewed the opportunities she sees for the humanities in American society and the kinds of efforts librarians can participate in to support progress in challenging times.