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Time for the Olympics! Opening Ceremony

gray olympics concrete block
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It’s time for the Olympics! Sure, they were delayed for a year (darn pandemic!); but it’s always a huge spectacle and amazing to see the results of a lifetime of hard work and dedication by thousands of athletes.

For libraries, this can be a tool to use to help connect readers, including reluctant readers, to some books they might enjoy. While we don’t need to harangue people to take books, it is our job to help connect people to information – including book – that would be fun, entertaining, useful, or otherwise something relevant to their interests and needs. Big events, such as the Olympics, can be a good way to help us make that connection!

There are tons of things going on at the Olympics every single day – much more than you will see on TV. With apologies to NBC for bluntness: they are terrible in their broadcasting. Too much Heart String Pulling intermissions and not enough showing a wide variety of sports and athletes. If you have access to a VPN, you might want to try setting your computer’s location to Canada to watch the CBC’s coverage, to England to watch the BBC’s, or any other country to see what kinds of sports and stories they are showing. Every broadcaster will look at different things, and that can add some excitement to your viewing.

But the one thing absolutely every broadcaster of the Olympics will be showing is tonight’s Opening Ceremony. These can be solemn, inspiring, emotional, and just plan fun. If you miss everything else, check out the Opening Ceremony. It’s a way to get everyone interested and invested, and also a way for the host country to show off some of the great parts of their history and culture.

There is a time for cynicism complaining, and yes there are bad/difficult things in the Olympics. Not overlooking those things. But this is an opportunity to focus on the positive, and maybe to provide a connection to reading for some people who are not necessarily going to think of finding the best books themselves.

Who is going to be there? Well, obviously things will be different than usual – we are still having a global pandemic that is killing people, so things have to be kept as safe as they can be. But there are still going to be thousands of athletes, coaches, support people, and others.

We have seventeen athletes from Minnesota! You can find their info in this article from the Star Tribune. Add them to your calendar, so you are ready to cheer for your home state athletes! Cheer for all the Americans! Cheers for a country you have visited! Cheer for a country you never heard of before now! Cheer for countries with only a few athletes! There are so many opportunities to get excited, to share in the fun, and to feel inspired!

Check out a few books you might add to your collection, recommend to your patrons, or just enjoy for yourself!!!