With the motto "Until the vaccine always", the National Library dismissed the 2020 at the Juan José Saer Esplanade, between readings, screenings and live music.

The director of the National Library was present at the meeting, Juan Sasturain, the deputy director, Elsa Rapetti and the director of the Museum of the book and language, Maria Moreno, who told how, for the first time in more than two centuries of history, the traditional enclosure had to face an unprecedented difficulty as of March 2020.

The esplanade that gives access to the main entrance of the Library was transformed into the open-air meeting center where the general director of Cultural Management, William David, welcomed and opened the meeting: “This year the pandemic forced us to rethink the way we offer the services of this library. And so we discovered new ways to communicate with the public and among ourselves.”.

Summoned by David, Juan Sasturain took the initiative and reflected on his first year in office at the National Library. “Having had the opportunity to occupy this position fills me with pride both today and the first day. We ran into an emergency that made with everything we thought about access, democratization and agility we had to close the door. And still we managed to keep working”.

Elsa Rapetti followed, career librarian with more than 25 years at the institution currently serving as deputy director: “Librarianship we are on a par with any library in Latin America. And we have professionals with a level of specialization, often acquired lung, rarely seen elsewhere”, He said. And I add: “Despite not working face-to-face, we have had records of user access to materials. We hope very soon to have physical access points to the Library in different parts of the country and thus advance in federalization”.

By last, the director of the Museum of the book and language, María Moreno expressed that: “This is a story of impossibility as limit and uncertainty as imagination”. He further stated that: “It was the invention that sustained the Museum of the book and language all these months. A huge and laborious invention”.

During the meeting, the institutional video Hasta la vaccina was screened, always (available on the BNMM YouTube Channel), that chronologically reviews all the actions and activities generated by the Library in virtual format since the beginning of social isolation, preventive and mandatory.

To end, Guillermo Saavedra and Ana Arzoumanian read poems and the closing was in charge of the musician Lucho Guedes who interpreted their themes “There is” Y “Angelito”.