By Jina DuVernay, Adult Services Manager for Gwinnett County Public Library 

On Saturday, March 23rd, the Gwinnett County Public Library hosted a screening of Rodney Freeman's documentary, Are You a Librarian?, at the Duluth branch. Freeman, who is a librarian and documentarian, participated in a talk back after the screening with Dr. Aisha Johnson, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Outreach at Georgia Tech Library.

Jina DuVernay, Adult Services Manager, learned about the documentary when Rodney Freeman, the documentarian, emailed and asked if he could interview her for the documentary. She was very honored and met him at Georgia Tech, where he asked a few questions while his associate recorded the interview. Then, during last year's ALA conference, DuVernay was able to catch a screening of the documentary-in-progress. She told Freeman that she would love to screen the documentary at the library and have him there for a talkback once he completed it. They later scheduled a time for the event to take place.

With the generous promotional help from Deon L. King Sr., Chair of the Black Caucus of the Georgia Library Association, the afternoon event attracted current and former librarians from both public and academic libraries, such as Emory University and Georgia State University.

Not only did attendees get the opportunity to view the powerful documentary on the history of Black librarianship, but they were able to engage in healthy dialogue during the talk back. They were also able to network with one another after the program while enjoying refreshments that the library provided.

All in all, it was an exuberant event that left attendees both informed and inspired!

To learn more about the Gwinnett County Public Library, go to https://www.gwinnettpl.org/.