Our new board member wants to foster the insatiable curiosity we all have, whether through a book pulled off a shelf or a digital site like News Decoder.
Audrey Chapuis giving a talk at the American Library of Paris. (Credit: Krystal Kenney)
Ask Audrey Chapuis what book is on her nightstand, and she struggles to answer. It’s a stack, which seems fitting for a librarian.
There’s No One Is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood; The Rise and Fall of American Growth, by Robert J. Gordon; This Ragged Grace: A Memoir of Recovery and Renewal, by Octavia Bright; and A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, by Stacy Schiff.
The executive director of the American Library in Paris recently joined the board of trustees of Nouvelles-Découvertes, the parent association of News Decoder. In that role, Chapuis is merging the missions of the Library with those of News Decoder.
It has long been Chapuis’ mission to grant public access to scholarly materials, in hand with the commitment to information and media literacy in classrooms.
Much of this, for Chapuis, is found in the world of literature.
“First, my focus is on the book, and yet it goes beyond the book,” Chapuis said. “It’s about how we’re engaging with information and texts and most of all, each other. How are we putting ourselves in the way of having open conversations that change us?”
Books unite people across cultures.
Chapuis has found that the Library is key to fostering cultural diversity while uniting audiences of “global citizens.” Spearheading an Anglo-Saxon institution in France, much like News Decoder’s own position in Europe, is a nod to Chapuis’ experience as an American in Paris.
“Like-minded people are drawn from all over the world, not just Americans, because [the American Library is] operating as a second culture within a culture,” Chapuis said. “It’s extremely diverse, and kind of a magical place.”
Last year the Library launched “On the Road” — which France Today dubbed a “pop-up tour” — with a series of cultural activities in libraries, museums and schools throughout the Île-de-France and Hauts-de-France regions.
The name referred to the classic road trip novel by Franco-American writer Jack Kerouac. In the book, based on his own experience, Kerouac chronicled his travels across the United States. His pit stops were much like the Library’s own, which dove into local communities throughout France.
Chapuis herself moved from Austin, in the U.S. state of Texas, to Paris a decade ago. She sees the audience of the Library as “not just Americans, but people who identify as readers at a fundamental level.”
Creating a climate to discuss climate change
Chapuis first connected with News Decoder over a series of “Ecologues” produced as part of News Decoder’s Writing’s on the Wall (WoW) climate change project in partnership with the Climate Academy at the European School Brussels II.
In these live Ecologues, held at the American Library in Paris and simulcast on Zoom, the Library and News Decoder brought together experts for conversations about different aspects of climate change.
“We’re trying to create experiences where people can have access to new, inspiring conversations, materials, frameworks and communities,” Chapuis said.
Maria Krasinski, News Decoder’s managing director, said the Ecologues were News Decoder’s first foray into a hybrid event series. “Audrey and program managers Alice McCrumb and Emilie Biggs were invaluable in helping to organize speakers and moderate discussions,” Krasinski said.
“It is amazing what happens when you bring together people who have different expertise and different ways of thinking about the same problem and then have them engage with an audience,” she said. “Everyone comes away with a fresh perspective.”
Education can be engaging.
Pointing to the shelves of maroon leather-bound books behind her at the Library, Chapuis said that such institutions pose as anchoring places.
“Libraries are still built and sustained by people, so whatever the technologies look like that we’re providing books with and through, it’s still all about the people,” Chapuis said. “I think libraries will be cultural and community anchors people will find solace in, but also like-minded people from all walks of life they can connect with.”
Chapuis cited sociologist Eric Klinenberg, who once described a library as a palace. “For the people,” Chapuis said.
Chapuis believes in building communities centered on lifelong learning. Educational programs, she said, should foster people’s natural curiosity and desire to learn.
Much of that hunger to learn can be met by books, both in new ones and those she finds she returns to and rereads. When you pick up a book and leaf through it, you can almost inhale the knowledge it contains.
“The older I get, those sense memories of reading,” Chapuis said, gesturing to her nose and breathing in, “even when I was a child, they remain.”
And that’s why libraries remain relevant in this age of digital information and why people still come to places like the American Library in Paris and strive to keep open their local libraries in communities throughout the world.
“They are imbued with all the best of human creativity,” she said. “And that’s pretty special these days.”
Kaja Andrić joined the News Decoder team as an intern in January 2024. She is a second-year Journalism student at New York University. She is also studying Romance Languages with a concentration in French and Italian. Andrić has written for both NYU’s Washington Square News and Cooper Squared publications. Previously, she was a correspondent for the Florida Weekly newspaper’s Palm Beach community chapter. In 2022, she was Florida Scholastic Press Association’s Writer of the Year.
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