NYPL's Ground Zero Branch Open

The New York Public Library has reopened its New Amsterdam branch, located three blocks north of the World Trade Center (WTC) complex. Clean-up operations involved manually dusting and reshelving some 40,000 items; the library's air ducts system had to be completely flushed. 'Once we were able to reenter the building, we moved ahead very quickly to restore service to the public,' said Mary K. Conwell, senior vice president and director of the branch libraries. 'It was very important to get the branch up and running just as soon as we could; these past two months have been very difficult for both the community and our staff, some of whom were in the building and witness to the events that morning.' Though now largely restored, the branch's telecommunications system was lost when the southern Manhattan network went down.

The New-York Historical Society is one of numerous museums and libraries nationwide grappling with the question of how to preserve materials involving the September 11 attacks. Many of the items-from physical flotsam and jetsam from the World Trade Center buildings to last-minute e-mails sent by victims to banners and cards made by school children following the attacks-do not fall into the typical categories of materials held by libraries and pose potential cataloging problems that will have to be addressed. Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) has introduced legislation to provide the Smithsonian National Museum of American History with $5 million to begin a preservation project for September 11-related materials