New Orleans Public Library Lays Off 90 Percent of Staff

No other Louisiana library similarly loses workers

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 11/1/2005

A directive by New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin to lay off some 40 percent of the city's work force in the wake of Hurricane Katrina has fallen unusually hard on the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL), which has laid off 181 of about 200 staffers—a devastating 90 percent. The remaining 19 employees must manage damage assessment and reconstruction of the skeletal system and offer shoestring service at two ­locations.

“The money situation looks very serious from now until the end of the year. Nobody is sure what's going to happen,” library director Bill Johnson told LJ. “It's kind of an open-ended situation. It's not like, if we make it to the end of the year it's going to be OK next year.” Five of 13 locations were flooded, and the city wants two locations to open, Johnson said on October 10. One location would be the Main Library downtown. The other likely site would be the Hubbell branch, in the West Bank neighborhood that was less impacted by the storm.

Johnson said the first priority was Internet service; the library might not initially circulate books. “Internet service is very much needed. People don't have access because their houses are flooded or they don't have it. It's relatively inexpensive since our dry branches already have T-1 lines.” The 19 remaining staffers, who include managers as well as maintenance and technical people, will have to manage the two locations.

So what should New Orleans staff do? A blog set up by staffers offers advice on getting unemployment benefits and finding jobs elsewhere. Johnson said, “It's an extremely difficult situation. The city is saying there's going to be no tax base. Nobody knows whether the federal government is going to do anything. We're certainly trying to bring the library back, but right now the finances just aren't there.”

He added, “There's a lot of good people we'd really like to have available, but we have to give them an accurate picture.” Then, again, he acknowledged that some might stick around. “A lot are from New Orleans. They love New Orleans, and they're willing to wait.”

Meanwhile, 19 libraries around the country have volunteered to be paired with New Orleans PL via the American Library Association's “Adopt a Library” program. However, before that, New Orleans PL must assess its needs.

Have any other library systems laid people off? A spokeswoman for the lieutenant governor's office, which is managing response to the hurricane, said no. Beverly Laughlin, executive director of the Louisiana Library Association, observed that in Cameron Parish, only a bookmobile is left, so library jobs are in question.

“The rest probably will be looking at how long it will be before a branch in that area can be operational, before they make the hard choices for staff,” Laughlin said. “On the one hand, branches that are open have a whole lot more business, so a lot would probably depend on the finances of the library system.”