[StBernard] Stricken libraries bear witness to disaster

[Westley Annis]

I think we had someone from the library on the list.  I'm pasting in an
article from nola.com.  I know the public library is apparently not high on
the list in the parish but at least in this article St. Bernard's library
got mentioned.
JLY
 
Today New Orleans welcomes its first major convention since the storm,
hosting more than 17,000 members of the American Library Association. The
ALA was forced to decide whether to cancel the convention last fall, when
much of the city did not have power or potable water. But the leaders of ALA
recognized the city's determination to rebuild and made a leap of faith in
its progress. Their decision helped to reassure the other major conventions
that will follow them. 
 
Not only will members of the American Library Association help to boost our
economy, they will bring the stories of their experiences back to their own
communities. They will explain that New Orleans is doing both better and
worse than anyone ever imagined and will describe both our functioning
historic neighborhoods and the dark acres of flooded homes. At circulation
desks and in publishing houses across the country, they will make sure that
we are not forgotten. 
 
While they are here, America's librarians will check on the progress of the
city's local branches, and they will find gutted, empty libraries that will
break their hearts. In some libraries, books still flutter from the ceiling
rafters where rising waters left them almost a year ago. All of the branches
in coastal parishes like St. Bernard and Cameron have been washed away. 
 
But convention-goers also will discover the sometimes irrational optimism
that keeps us going. Faced with eight flooded branches and a near-bankrupt
city, the New Orleans Library Foundation rolled up its sleeves and got to
work, thus far raising more than 10 percent of our $10 million goal. 
 
Hundreds of ALA volunteers will put the finishing touches on two exciting
projects. The Children's Resource Center, a historic Carnegic library on the
corner of Magazine and Napoleon, is receiving an "extreme makeover" from
Highsmith Inc., a national library designer. In Bywater, the Library Journal
has designed and coordinated the makeover of the Alvar branch, an art deco
building that will reopen for the first time since Katrina, bursting with
computers and local art and surrounded by a community garden planted by the
neighborhood association. 
 
These two branches will be better than before, full of new books, new
technology and a new emphasis on education. They will join donated
bookmobiles parked at Algiers Regional and the Smith Branch on Canal
Boulevard to bring our number of library sites to eight -- five fewer than
before the floods. 
 
We will use our libraries to make sure that every citizen of New Orleans
knows how to read and to use a computer, how to perform basic job skills and
to preserve the cultural richness that keeps us happy. Libraries will be a
focal point of rebirth. 
New Orleanians should know that gifts are flowing in from all over the
country. In addition to major donations from the Gates Foundation and Bush
Clinton Fund, children send us penny drives and donated snack money. The
elementary school students at Newman raised $4,000 with lemonade stands.
Princeton University students made a "levee of books" as a fundraising
campaign. 
 
Neighborhood groups have adopted their branches and tried to find ways to
rebuild and reimagine them as community centers. 
 
This week, when you see librarians with convention nametags walking around
downtown, thank them. And tell them that, one penny-drive at a time, we will
rebuild our New Orleans libraries. 
. . . . . . . 
Tania Tetlow is chair of the New Orleans Public Library board and an
associate professor at Tulane Law School. She can be reached at
ttetlow at law.tulane.edu.