Editorial: Dear Mayor Nagin

You’ve probably heard enough criticism about not reappointing Tania Tetlow to the board of the New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) (see News, p. 14). I’m not writing to repeat that, though I am a Tetlow fan. I worked with her and the staff of NOPL on the revival of the Alvar Street Branch Library, and her ability to articulate the library’s role in rebuilding the neighborhoods of New Orleans and to mobilize support for that vision won my admiration. Not only that, it drew contributions from hundreds of library vendors, organizations, suppliers, and publishers who donated their goods, services, time, and money to transform the gutted Alvar Street Branch into a 21st-century facility, to remake the Children’s Resource Center, and to begin the task of rebuilding other New Orleans libraries. Those donations are valued in the millions.

Tetlow’s editorials and editorializing in New Orleans and elsewhere about the impact NOPL had post-Katrina and the role it would play as a community center and economic engine no doubt put the library front and center for those who wanted to help, like Library Journal. It did the same for thousands of librarians throughout the country who converged on your city in June.

So, yes, I’m sorry to see Tetlow go. At a time when New Orleans libraries seemed in limbo, awaiting FEMA money, she helped jump-start fundraising for the NOPL Foundation. Like you, she is well connected in the city, and she used those connections to move the library forward. She, too, wants New Orleanians to return home. If she steamrollered bureaucracy, this was certainly the time to do it. Those of us working with her from afar cheered her efforts and her commitment. She earned our respect.

Whether she is reappointed to the board or continues her work at the NOPL Foundation, on whose board she remains, we’re with her—and the library. As NOPL interim director Geraldine Harris told me, “Either way, it’s a win-win for us. She has a lot to contribute.” From what I hear, new board member Irvin Mayfield has a lot to contribute to the library, too. Even before Katrina, he was involved in fundraising.

Thanks to people like Tetlow and the staff, board, and foundation, New Orleans has begun to build a world-class library system. That’s something the city has never had. New Orleans libraries had been neglected by the city for years way before Katrina hit, the victim of severe underfunding. An extraordinary staff including Harris, former director Bill Johnson, Elisabeth Konrad, Linda Marshall Hill, and others soldiered on after the storm. With the help of the people of New Orleans and outsiders, they ensured that New Orleans libraries reopened. Without the ingenuity and hard work of this dedicated—and underpaid—staff, all of the donations would have meant nothing.

Now it’s time to build on their initiatives and guarantee that the momentum they’ve generated is not lost. You and the NOPL team have a rare opportunity to create a library system from the bottom up—one that will truly serve the needs of current and returning residents and the younger generation. The fallout from Tetlow’s departure from the board is a distraction from the real work that needs to be done. You can end the negative publicity now by being a vocal public champion of the library’s rebirth, by getting behind the staff, and by giving them the resources, and the strong new director, they need to continue the advances they have already made. You have plenty of challenges, but as so many other American cities have learned, the library can be an economic trump card you can play in that impossibly difficult hand Mother Nature has dealt to you and to beautiful old New Orleans.

fialkoff@reedbusiness.com