[StBernard] Summit held for librarians

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Dec 1 21:10:44 EST 2006


By J.R. WELSH


jrwelsh at sunherald.com

GULFPORT - Gulf Coast librarians are convening in Baton Rouge this week,
seeking ways to restore normality at 31 public libraries destroyed by
hurricanes in Mississippi and Louisiana last year.

At a summit that ends today, library officials are going through the first
recovery phase leading to millions in grants for use in public library
reconstruction.

Mississippi Coast library representatives at the summit were those from the
Harrison and Hancock County systems, as well as their counterparts from the
Long Beach Municipal Public Library and the Jackson-George Regional Library
System. In addition, librarians from 10 Louisiana parishes were expected to
attend.

The meeting is being hosted by the Atlanta-based Southeastern Library
Network in partnership with the Mississippi Library Commission and the State
Library of Louisiana.
Kate Nevins, executive director of the library network, said the summit was
called "to provide a framework and context for planning library buildings
and services in recovering Gulf Coast communities."

Libraries are "critical resources for positive, sustainable community
growth," she said.
The Harrison County Library System is struggling to recover from Hurricane
Katrina. The storm destroyed the system's 48,000-square-foot main library
and headquarters in downtown Gulfport and wiped out more than $6 million in
contents system-wide. Central libraries in Biloxi, Pass Christian and
D'Iberville also suffered heavy damages.

The Harrison County Board of Supervisors has asked library officials to
appear at a board meeting on Dec. 4 to discuss plans for a new main library.
System Director Robert Lipscomb has said he prefers placing the main library
farther inland from its old beachfront location, but supervisors hope to
land federal grants that require the facility to be rebuilt in a location
qualifying under a downtown revitalization classification.

At the Baton Rouge summit, librarians will begin vying for funds being
passed down by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Gulf Coast
Libraries Project. The foundation is providing a reported $12.2 million for
use in planning new libraries and paying for temporary facilities,
materials, technology and staffing in communities that lost libraries to
hurricanes.





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