Gulf Coast libraries bursting with donated books

NEW ORLEANS -- Like most libraries here, the Algiers Regional Branch took a sucker punch from Hurricane Katrina.

Wind whipped the '60s-era concrete, cantilevered-roofed building, tearing loose the copper facade. Rain leaked through and destroyed books, carpets and furniture.

Workers repaired the roof and gutted the building. It's still closed, but nearly 10 months later, it plays a vital role by housing thousands of donated books.

Hundreds of thousands, actually. If you add the other two branches where more are kept, it's possibly a million. Nobody has an accurate count because the books just keep coming in.

"People have been incredibly generous across the country," library director Bill Johnson says.

But right now, books aren't his problem. He needs cash to staff the libraries that, like the rest of the city, are expected to reopen in the coming months and years.

When hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast last year, they damaged or destroyed about 50 public libraries in three states, most of them in southern Louisiana. Now officials are struggling to bring them back.

Librarians from around the country will descend upon the area next week for the American Library Association's annual meeting. The group says 900 volunteers will spend several days helping rebuild and restock five libraries.

"The country thinks that everything is back to normal and there aren't needs anymore," says Jefferson Parish Library director Lon Dickerson, who must reopen eight of his 15 suburban libraries.

"I'm almost embarrassed that I can't do that."

In New Orleans, where the city's tax base was decimated, Johnson frets about finding operating money once libraries are reopened. Orleans Parish, which encompasses New Orleans, lost eight of 13 libraries and recorded as much as $30million in damage. The library system laid off most of its 213 workers; it has brought back 19.

FEMA will help rebuild and buy new collections, but it requires that local agencies supply 10% to 25% of what's needed. Johnson and others foresee trouble finding the matching revenue.

When the topic turns to books, library officials say: Thanks, but please don't send any more.

At Algiers, just across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans, cases upon cases of them began arriving last fall, from church groups and book groups, from families and schools -- shrink-wrapped pallets of books, cardboard beer boxes of books plastered with postage stamps.

In many cases, it's clear the donors simply were cleaning out closets. Open boxes display two books published in 1969, How to Play Platform Tennis and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask).

The local Friends of the Library, which used to hold book sales twice a year, now holds them twice a week, processing a mountain a books that so far have brought in about $20,000.

Meanwhile, Dickerson, just west of the city, is locked in a battle with FEMA over rebuilding. The federal agency has been "fighting us tooth and nail" over relief. "They won't give us the funds. They won't pay for cleanup."

Staff and volunteers gutted damaged libraries soon after the storm, so when FEMA contractors arrived, they said they couldn't find the destruction, he says.

In one library, in Westwego, La., "They swear on a stack of Bibles that there was no flooding there. And I say there were fish in the parking lot."

At another library, FEMA balked at roof repairs; then Hurricane Rita did even more damage.

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker says he's unfamiliar with the cases but stresses the agency "is more than happy" to meet with library officials and work through their concerns.

"Certainly libraries are a valuable community asset, and FEMA is not only committed to the economic recovery of the Gulf but the cultural as well."

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