full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Chera Kowalski: The critical role librarians play in the opioid crisis

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Choosing to be a librarian and choosing to be at McPherson was me letting go of that feeling of hlplsenesses and finding ways to be supportive to others. And one way to proidve support was lerinnag how to administer nraacn. Public libraries respond to the needs of their communities, and not knowing how to utilize Narcan was a disservice to the needs of our community. We were on the frontlines and desperately needed access to this liafiensvg tool. So finally in late February of 2017, after much adviocatng, we finally received tniinrag from Prevention Point Philadelphia and about a month of so later, I utilized Narcan for the first time to save someone's life. It was after school again, and Teddy came into the library and said someone was overdosing on a front bnech. Someone on staff called 911 again, and I grabbed the Narcan kit. The woman was barely in her 20s and barely brhetniag. Her friend was frantically slapping her in the face in hopes of riienvvg her. I administered the Narcan nasally, and thankfully she came to. But before the abmlancue arrived, she and her friend ran off. And when I finally turned around, I saw the kids — kids that come into the library on a daily basis, some that I have known for yaers — sinatdng on the spets of the building. They saw everything. And they didn't seem like they were visibly upset or in shock, and so I walked into the bdlinuig, right into our workroom, and I cried. I cried pltray from the shock of what just happened because I never thought I'd be saving anybody's life ever, but I mostly cried because of the kids. This is their normal. This is the community's normal. This is a catastrophic normal, and in that moment, I was forced to confront once again that this should never be normal, and as with my childhood, when you're in it, you just accept it.

Open Cloze

Choosing to be a librarian and choosing to be at McPherson was me letting go of that feeling of ____________ and finding ways to be supportive to others. And one way to _______ support was ________ how to administer ______. Public libraries respond to the needs of their communities, and not knowing how to utilize Narcan was a disservice to the needs of our community. We were on the frontlines and desperately needed access to this __________ tool. So finally in late February of 2017, after much __________, we finally received ________ from Prevention Point Philadelphia and about a month of so later, I utilized Narcan for the first time to save someone's life. It was after school again, and Teddy came into the library and said someone was overdosing on a front _____. Someone on staff called 911 again, and I grabbed the Narcan kit. The woman was barely in her 20s and barely _________. Her friend was frantically slapping her in the face in hopes of ________ her. I administered the Narcan nasally, and thankfully she came to. But before the _________ arrived, she and her friend ran off. And when I finally turned around, I saw the kids — kids that come into the library on a daily basis, some that I have known for _____ — ________ on the _____ of the building. They saw everything. And they didn't seem like they were visibly upset or in shock, and so I walked into the ________, right into our workroom, and I cried. I cried ______ from the shock of what just happened because I never thought I'd be saving anybody's life ever, but I mostly cried because of the kids. This is their normal. This is the community's normal. This is a catastrophic normal, and in that moment, I was forced to confront once again that this should never be normal, and as with my childhood, when you're in it, you just accept it.

Solution

  1. building
  2. standing
  3. narcan
  4. ambulance
  5. years
  6. lifesaving
  7. training
  8. breathing
  9. reviving
  10. learning
  11. advocating
  12. helplessness
  13. partly
  14. steps
  15. provide
  16. bench

Original Text

Choosing to be a librarian and choosing to be at McPherson was me letting go of that feeling of helplessness and finding ways to be supportive to others. And one way to provide support was learning how to administer Narcan. Public libraries respond to the needs of their communities, and not knowing how to utilize Narcan was a disservice to the needs of our community. We were on the frontlines and desperately needed access to this lifesaving tool. So finally in late February of 2017, after much advocating, we finally received training from Prevention Point Philadelphia and about a month of so later, I utilized Narcan for the first time to save someone's life. It was after school again, and Teddy came into the library and said someone was overdosing on a front bench. Someone on staff called 911 again, and I grabbed the Narcan kit. The woman was barely in her 20s and barely breathing. Her friend was frantically slapping her in the face in hopes of reviving her. I administered the Narcan nasally, and thankfully she came to. But before the ambulance arrived, she and her friend ran off. And when I finally turned around, I saw the kids — kids that come into the library on a daily basis, some that I have known for years — standing on the steps of the building. They saw everything. And they didn't seem like they were visibly upset or in shock, and so I walked into the building, right into our workroom, and I cried. I cried partly from the shock of what just happened because I never thought I'd be saving anybody's life ever, but I mostly cried because of the kids. This is their normal. This is the community's normal. This is a catastrophic normal, and in that moment, I was forced to confront once again that this should never be normal, and as with my childhood, when you're in it, you just accept it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
public libraries 3
drug trade 3
community support 2
free library 2
discarded needles 2
opioid epidemic 2
personal experiences 2
people began 2
staff called 2

Important Words

  1. accept
  2. access
  3. administer
  4. administered
  5. advocating
  6. ambulance
  7. arrived
  8. barely
  9. basis
  10. bench
  11. breathing
  12. building
  13. called
  14. catastrophic
  15. childhood
  16. choosing
  17. communities
  18. community
  19. confront
  20. cried
  21. daily
  22. desperately
  23. disservice
  24. face
  25. february
  26. feeling
  27. finally
  28. finding
  29. forced
  30. frantically
  31. friend
  32. front
  33. frontlines
  34. grabbed
  35. happened
  36. helplessness
  37. hopes
  38. kids
  39. kit
  40. knowing
  41. late
  42. learning
  43. letting
  44. librarian
  45. libraries
  46. library
  47. life
  48. lifesaving
  49. mcpherson
  50. moment
  51. month
  52. narcan
  53. nasally
  54. needed
  55. normal
  56. overdosing
  57. partly
  58. philadelphia
  59. point
  60. prevention
  61. provide
  62. public
  63. ran
  64. received
  65. respond
  66. reviving
  67. save
  68. saving
  69. school
  70. shock
  71. slapping
  72. staff
  73. standing
  74. steps
  75. support
  76. supportive
  77. teddy
  78. thankfully
  79. thought
  80. time
  81. tool
  82. training
  83. turned
  84. upset
  85. utilize
  86. utilized
  87. visibly
  88. walked
  89. ways
  90. woman
  91. workroom
  92. years