Scores of libraries have been heavily damaged by the hurricane and
flooding, according to the ALA, which has a section of its Web site
devoted to news about the disaster. Many libraries in parts of the
country near the disaster area have been working overtime providing
photocopying services (often for FEMA applications) as well as
supplying reading material to the displaced. Some are offering library
cards on a temporary basis.
Among the many reports from the hardest-hit areas:
The main branch of the New Orleans Public Library has water up to the first floor, which "likely destroyed all archives." The Martin Luther King Jr. branch is "devastated." The Milton H. Latter branch may be minimally damaged.
(Ironically the New Orleans Public Library's choice for its One Book, One New Orleans read this year was Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry (S&S, $16, 0684840022). Published in 1997, the title has risen into the top 20 on Amazon; S&S is printing another 10,000 copies, according to the AP.)
In Mississippi, the libraries in Long Beach and Biloxi are gone. While the buildings of the Gulfport and Hancock County Library System in Bay St. Louis remain standing, their collections are likely lost.
In Louisiana, the Buras Library in Plaquemines Parish had as much as 20 feet of water, although the building is still standing. The Port Sulphur branch may have been flooded by as much as 10 feet of water.
In the Lafourche Parish system, only the Golden Meadow branch had severe damage: its roof blew off. Late last week, the staff transported material in that building to a building that the library had purchased last month for a planned move. Only some "old books and things stored in closet areas" were damaged, director Beverly Arabie wrote.
St. Charles Parish libraries had minor wind damage but no water or structural damage. All the public libraries in St. John the Baptist Parish survived and should be open for business today. In St. Tammany Parish, most branches suffered only wind damage although the Pontchartrain branch in Slidell was flooded.
Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis's home, in Biloxi, Miss., suffered extensive damage, but Davis's papers had been moved upstairs and survived.
The Louisiana Library Association has set up a Disaster Relief Fund to assist school, public and academic library restoration in southeastern Louisiana. Send checks payable to LLA-Disaster Relief to 421 South 4th St., Eunice, LA 70535.
ALA is also "monitoring" the situation as it relates to next year's annual conference, scheduled for June 22-28 in New Orleans. Information will be posted on ALA's home page.
---
The publisher most directly affected was Pelican Publishing in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, on the west bank of the Mississippi. Last week national accounts manager Jan Fehrman said in an e-mail that the company's "facility and inventory may not have experienced great damage but reliable information is hard to come by." In the meantime, Pelican is asking retail customers buying books to contact Ingram, Baker & Taylor and other wholesalers with significant amounts of Pelican inventory and not to return any titles for the moment. The company's Web site is working.
Sadly Pelican has been through this kind of thing before: on New Year's Eve 1997 a fire gutted its old offices and warehouse.
Among the many reports from the hardest-hit areas:
The main branch of the New Orleans Public Library has water up to the first floor, which "likely destroyed all archives." The Martin Luther King Jr. branch is "devastated." The Milton H. Latter branch may be minimally damaged.
(Ironically the New Orleans Public Library's choice for its One Book, One New Orleans read this year was Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America by John M. Barry (S&S, $16, 0684840022). Published in 1997, the title has risen into the top 20 on Amazon; S&S is printing another 10,000 copies, according to the AP.)
In Mississippi, the libraries in Long Beach and Biloxi are gone. While the buildings of the Gulfport and Hancock County Library System in Bay St. Louis remain standing, their collections are likely lost.
In Louisiana, the Buras Library in Plaquemines Parish had as much as 20 feet of water, although the building is still standing. The Port Sulphur branch may have been flooded by as much as 10 feet of water.
In the Lafourche Parish system, only the Golden Meadow branch had severe damage: its roof blew off. Late last week, the staff transported material in that building to a building that the library had purchased last month for a planned move. Only some "old books and things stored in closet areas" were damaged, director Beverly Arabie wrote.
St. Charles Parish libraries had minor wind damage but no water or structural damage. All the public libraries in St. John the Baptist Parish survived and should be open for business today. In St. Tammany Parish, most branches suffered only wind damage although the Pontchartrain branch in Slidell was flooded.
Beauvoir, Jefferson Davis's home, in Biloxi, Miss., suffered extensive damage, but Davis's papers had been moved upstairs and survived.
The Louisiana Library Association has set up a Disaster Relief Fund to assist school, public and academic library restoration in southeastern Louisiana. Send checks payable to LLA-Disaster Relief to 421 South 4th St., Eunice, LA 70535.
ALA is also "monitoring" the situation as it relates to next year's annual conference, scheduled for June 22-28 in New Orleans. Information will be posted on ALA's home page.
---
The publisher most directly affected was Pelican Publishing in the New Orleans suburb of Gretna, on the west bank of the Mississippi. Last week national accounts manager Jan Fehrman said in an e-mail that the company's "facility and inventory may not have experienced great damage but reliable information is hard to come by." In the meantime, Pelican is asking retail customers buying books to contact Ingram, Baker & Taylor and other wholesalers with significant amounts of Pelican inventory and not to return any titles for the moment. The company's Web site is working.
Sadly Pelican has been through this kind of thing before: on New Year's Eve 1997 a fire gutted its old offices and warehouse.