New Orleans Debuts Ambitious Plan

Leaders of the long underresourced New Orleans Public Library (NOPL), which was devastated by the effects of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, aim to produce a “world-class library system” by 2030, following a $650 million drive for capital and operating funds. The master plan, Speaking Volumes for the Future, was to be announced March 18, along with a plan for a new $10 million “jazz” branch.

[Correction: LJ originally reported that a contribution from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation would help fully fund the branch. While the foundation is supporting interim libraries and NOPL's master plan, other private sources are being sought to complement public funds to complete the branch.]

The master plan cites the indigenous musical form as an inspiration for democratic values and authenticity. NOPL board chair Irvin Mayfield, a jazz trumpeter, told LJ that the jazz branch, at the end of the Gentilly corridor, would include performance spaces and practice rooms to bring music into the library. The master plan includes five prototype branches and estimates a near-doubling of per capita library space.

Per capita funding would more than double, bringing NOPL, at the 16th percentile among peer libraries in 2004, to the upper quartile of that group. The plan estimates a capital budget of nearly $200 million in current dollars, or $277 million over time. Mayfield was optimistic, saying that federal and state funds had not been tapped, nor had local or national foundations. The city's economy has grown, and, Mayfield said, “We think we have justification to double the millage.”

One priority: a new Main Library to replace the aging current facility, especially “a new, secure, above-ground archival facility for the Louisiana Division,” currently housing valuable material below ground but spared flooding from Katrina.

The master plan was prepared by Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, Ltd., library architects and interior designers, with Library Planning Associates, Inc., and E. Eean McNaughton Architects for the New Orleans Public Library Foundation (NOPLF). It was funded by Gulf Coast Libraries Project of SOLINET, the Gates Foundation, and NOPLF.