When the director of the Houma branch of the Terrebonne Parish Library in Louisiana opened the library’s heavy glass doors two days after Hurricane Katrina, she found a small crowd of disheveled and disoriented patrons waiting patiently outside. Across the street, the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center was filling with evacuees from New Orleans, some 60 miles to the northeast. In an unfamiliar city with no working telephone lines, wireless towers, or cable television, people were turning instinctively to the public library for information and communion.

If you can get to a public library, you can reach the Internet. When the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation introduced a U.S. Libraries initiative in 1997, that was our vision. We began to give grants, install computers and software, and provide training and technical support in partnership with public libraries nationwide.

In 1998, Mississippi and Louisiana received a $6.6-million grant through the program for about 2,000 Internet-enabled computers. As a result, surviving Gulf Coast public libraries were well equipped to serve as vital community centers in the days and weeks after Katrina and Rita ravaged the area in 2005. Aided by library staff, evacuees searched for loved ones, filled out insurance forms, filed for federal disaster assistance, found temporary housing, applied for jobs, watched streaming video of their devastated neighborhoods—and received much-needed comfort. Said Wanda Bruchis, a computer services administrator who was on the front line at the Houma branch: “We did a lot of hugging and back-patting.”

Connecting with other people was top priority for evacuees. Since many had little or no experience using computers, library staff helped them post “I’m OK” and missing-person notices and search online databases for information about survivors. Bruchis was particularly touched by a soft-spoken, elderly man who was looking for his daughter. The housing project where she had lived was underwater, and he didn’t know whether she had been evacuated.

“You could tell he had resigned himself to any outcome, no matter what it was,” she said.

In the chaos, Bruchis never heard about the fate of the man’s daughter. But the Houma library staff decided that if a search resulted in news of a death, they would print the notice and accompany the person to a private space to read it.

The Role of Libraries
If there were any doubts about the pivotal role played by public libraries, the 2005 hurricane season erased them. In the months after the levies broke in New Orleans, local governments used Gulf libraries to set up makeshift offices. Aid organizations, including the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), took advantage of library meeting rooms and conference facilities. Businesses searched for employees and tried to make payroll. Parents were able to browse recovery resources and apply for jobs as their children read picture books nearby.

But not all public libraries were able to open their doors. Some had been flattened by wind or washed away by water. Others suffered extensive damage, including crushed roofs from fallen trees and mold-infested book collections. In all, nearly 150 public libraries were damaged or destroyed in Louisiana and Mississippi; almost 50 remain closed after nearly a year.

Efforts to Rebuild
Many of the worst-hit Louisiana libraries are in small, rural towns, where people get by living off the land and sea. In such tight-knit communities—where the local librarian will tell a shrimp fisherman, “Pick five paperback books to take offshore with you and bring them back when you come home”—losing the town library leaves a large hole.

Recognizing the magnitude of these losses, the Gates Foundation has announced a $12.2-million grant to the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) to assist libraries on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. The money will establish temporary facilities, support planning to rebuild destroyed or damaged libraries, and eventually pay for new computers in rebuilt public libraries. SOLINET will administer the grant and help state library agencies collaborate with state legislatures and governors’ offices. The Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund will give an additional $5 million for library recovery and new construction.

“This is a giant step toward drawing people back to their parishes,” said Rebecca Hamilton, head of the State Library of Louisiana. “Temporary libraries and bookmobiles will signal that Louisiana is open for business, and promise an eventual return to normal life.”
Sharman Bridges Smith, executive director of the Mississippi Library Commission, agrees. “Public libraries are the most public of public institutions,” she said. “In the middle of chaos, they offer calm sanctuary and a sense of place.”

Emerging Stronger
SOLINET Executive Director Kate Nevins said the grant is an opportunity for libraries, “not just to build back, but to build better.” At an intensive rebuilding summit this fall, community representatives will re-envision their library systems, weaving the best of what existed before with what was learned from enduring two catastrophic hurricanes in a single month.

Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf Coast libraries may eventually emerge stronger. In the midst of the disasters, everyone from evacuees to government authorities saw libraries doing what they do best—providing guidance, information, and solace. As several Gulf Coast librarians put it, the hurricane season of 2005 reinforced what they’ve known all along—public libraries are ultimately about people.

Funding Eligibility
The foundation’s funding for public libraries on the Gulf Coast will be dispersed through an intermediary organization, the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET). Working in partnership with the State Library of Louisiana and the Mississippi Library Commission, SOLINET will complete an immediate needs assessment to guide coordination and allocation of grant funds to specific library branches within predetermined eligible library systems. Eligible systems were selected based on communities in Louisiana and Mississippi whose library facilities and services were most significantly affected by the 2005 hurricanes. Letters of inquiry and unsolicited proposals are not being accepted.