Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate, September 5:
The O. Perry Walker High School library in Algiers, Louisiana—outfitted with a bare light bulb and with a fan in a big wooden box that barely circulates the warm September air—is serving as a temporary headquarters for the New Orleans Police Department. The normal headquarters building at Tulane Avenue and Broad Street is, like most of New Orleans, under water. This library is the fall-back position on West Bank, where flooding was minimal. A generator powers the fan and light.
Harrison County (Miss.) Library System, Gulfport, September 4:
Sharon Davis, branch manager of the HCLS Margaret Sherry branch in Biloxi, writes: “Harrison County Library System employees that we know are okay include Elizabeth, Donna, Deborah, Missy, Loretta, Mary, Rachel, Carrie, Lucienne, Kathy, Gen, Jamie, and Jane. We still have not made contact with quite a number of people, including HCLS Director Robert Lipscomb, Biloxi Branch Director Charline Longino, the Pass Christian branch employees, and many others.
“From what we can tell, the West Biloxi and D’Iberville libraries are in good condition. The Biloxi library was hit by about 12 feet of water, but the building is still standing. Windows were blown out, and there are still books on the shelves, but the state of the collection and possibilities for salvage aren’t yet known. No news yet on the Gulfport library, but the area was hit hard by storm surge, and we’re hoping to hear more about it in the next few days. Many areas near the beach are blocked off by police due to debris and biohazards. A professor at the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park campus, in Long Beach, has told us that the library there suffered no significant damage.”
New Orleans Times-Picayune library, September 4:
NOTP Librarian Brent Hightower alerted LISNews that he is trying to preserve the newspaper’s archives: “Archival storage boxes, acid-free, are a must. Lignen-free would help but is not necessary. Mininimum size, 25-by-17 inches. Desire some five boxes, but I’ll go for one at this point. Also need buffered archival paper, minimum dimensions the same, 25-by-17 inches. Brent Hightower cell: 225-329-9747. Thanks to all if you can pull through. You’ll be helping preserve the historical record of the Times-Picayune for generations to come.”
The newspaper has been making its Katrina-related pages available online in Adobe PDF format since August 29. Visit www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf.ssf.
Internet Archive, September 3:
Digital Librarian Brewster Kahle writes: “The Internet Archive, a nonprofit digital library, needs help in finding the URLs of sites and blogs that contain documents of this major disaster. Please email links to sites and pages that should be saved for future research. We have worked to archive events such as 9/11 and the tsunami with the generous help of volunteers finding and sending in links. We then save these digital works for the long term and create research tools (for example, Minerva and the Wayback Machine. As a library, we provide free access to those wanting to learn from these events. We can only hope that we learn some lessons from disasters such as these. We are also looking for a couple of volunteers who can help orchestrate the crawl. If you are interested, please send a note to katrina@archive.org with 'volunteer’ in the subject line.”
Association of Records Managers and Administrators International, September 2:
ARMA International is making available free resource materials that will help organizations recover their business records and information. These materials are offered as downloadable files that can be accessed and printed free of charge. Included are excerpts from the book Emergency Management for Records and Information Programs: Chapter 8: Recovery and Resumption of Operations and a helpful form from Appendix B: Initial Damage Assessment Report. These focus on the steps for responding to an emergency or disaster and for beginning the recovery of information assets. Also available is information on salvage and drying techniques from the ANSI/ARMA 5-2003 Standard: Vital Records Programs: Identifying, Managing, and Recovering Business-Critical Records.
United Negro College Fund, September 1:
Historically black colleges and universities hit by Katrina will be getting help from at least two organizations long associated with efforts to keep those universities alive. The United Negro College Fund has set up a special relief fund to benefit Xavier University and Dillard University, both premier institutions located in New Orleans. The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education is coordinating with other universities to provide for alternatives in the event the HBCUs are not able to quickly reopen and return to a regular academic schedule. In addition to Xavier and Dillard, Bishop State College in Mobile, Alabama, and Southern University’s New Orleans campus may have also suffered damage, said Linda Earley Chastang, NAFEO senior VP and general counsel.
National Trust for Historic Preservation, September 2:
Once the immediate human crisis is over, communities will be faced with assessing damage, repairing infrastructure and planning for the future. The National Trust is in need of volunteers skilled in preservation, architecture, engineering and small business development who are willing to be contacted about serving on assessment teams. Volunteer by filling out an Assessment Team Skills Survey. Other National Trust resources for owners of older buildings damaged by the storm are the Treatment of Flood-Damaged Older and Historic Buildings manual, and insurance solutions for owners of older and historic buildings.
OCLC, September 2:
Due to Hurricane Katrina, OCLC has postponed the aging of the bibliographic save file, the authority save file, and the ILL Request Manager until September 8.
Posted September 5, 2005.