In A Nutshell

The Jefferson Parish Library sustained physical damage from the hurricanes of 2005 totaling at least $16 M.  As part of the rebuilding process, the library is putting forward a vision for capacity and service that overcomes past deficiencies and enables the library to play an active role in the economic and educational recovery of the parish and the greater New Orleans area.  The vision includes upgraded collections, physical improvements at eight of the library’s fifteen branches, and new facilities to meet state standards for space per capita. 

Background

Hurricane damage to the Grand Isle branch library in Jefferson.

Based on 2004 statistics, Louisiana ranked 45th in the country in the quality of library services and Jefferson Parish ranked below the state average.  The Library covers a 640 square mile service area, reaching from rural fishing communities in the Delta to burgeoning communities whose diverse populations and services affect the entire New Orleans area.   

As a result of planning precipitated by extensive hurricane damage, the Library is on its way toward building a better library system than existed pre-Katrina.  As Lisa Conescu, Library Board President, says, “the Library is playing an active role in rebuilding our parish and the region.”

Having spent $ 4.6 M on clean-up activities, Jefferson Parish Library is now working to raise another $10 to $14 M to “build back better”.  Through ALC’s Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund award of $1.2 M the Library will make repairs and modifications at eight of the fifteen branches, including Live Oak, Grand Isle, Old Metairie, North Kenner and Westwego.  The Library has a wish list which includes $6 M for updating collections, $2.3 M for a new library in Lafitte, and $500,000 for system-wide technology upgrades.  In addition, the Library is trying to raise $173 M to build several larger facilities required to bring it into compliance with state standards for space per capita. 

Advocacy Goals

To raise $173 M for new and improved library facilities by:

• Raising the profile of the Library as a key component of local and regional economic recovery and growth, helping students be successful in school, and enhancing the quality of life.
  
  
• Building local support groups at each branch site
  
  
• Making the case to local and state legislators for library investment as an economic investment
  
  
• Working with national organizations interested in helping attract new philanthropic and public support for libraries

Getting the Work Done

The Gretna branch library in Jefferson Parish post-Katrina.

Less than 24 hours after Katrina hit on August 29th, 2005, a library ‘krewe’ (the library director and members of the maintenance and outreach departments) was back in the parish dealing with damaged library facilities and resources.  The damage ranged from slight (at Rosedale Library and River Ridge e-Branch) to devastating (Belle Terre, Gretna, and Lakeshore, which received major damage to their structures and contents and will be closed indefinitely).  Several branches were significantly damaged and reopened slowly over the next few months – two, North Kenner Library and Live Oak Library, having just reopened after major demolition and repair.

The Jefferson Parish library director, Lon Dickerson, made a positive decision to take the “almost insurmountable challenges. . . dumped” on the library system by Katrina and re-frame them as opportunities for growth and change. This would seem a near-impossible task in the midst of such overwhelming devastation, but through tireless advocacy and outreach, Jefferson Parish has connected with many who have deep sympathy for the plight of those affected by Katrina and has harnessed both public and private funds to help them in not only building back, but “building back better.”

Advocacy Strategies

Strategic Communications

Since Hurricane Katrina, Lon Dickerson, Director of the Jefferson Parish Library System, has tirelessly attempted to keep his library system in the spotlight.  He has reached out by:

• Appealing to sympathetic organizations, for example through this letter [PDF] to the Urban Libraries Council, to tell them about Jefferson Parish Library’s ongoing need for funding and support
  
  
• Spending the time to write longer articles such as one published in Alki, the Washington Library Association Journal (March 2006, Vol. 22 No. 1) about the recovery effort
  
  
• Giving interviews like this one (clip via ALA) at the ALA conference in New Orleans in 2006
  
  
• Appearing on local television to accept a donation of computers from VIA technologies (for a clip, please see the bottom of this page).

In this case, the key to effective strategic communication has largely been patience and persistence—the ability to tell essentially the same story, in a positive way but with urgency, over and over again.

Model Programs

The Jefferson Parish Library also raised its profile in the months after the storm by meeting serious community needs at the right time—for example, through:

• a much-lauded “Katrina Card” program, which gives access to Jefferson Parish library system to reconstruction workers and other New Orleans residents on a month-to-month basis, for free
  
  
• staying open late (9 pm) at the branches in the early months after the storm when little else was open at night
  
  
• implementing much-needed evening programming soon after the storm, like a series of programs on home and garden repair post-Katrina and a series of programs focused on post-Katrina medical and psychological topics.

Model programming is key to raising both public and private funds. The Katrina card was responsible, according to Dickerson, for a donation of fifty computers form VIA technologies, Inc. Dickerson has also written that “the politicians are keenly aware of the library’s increased visibility and the number of cars in our parking lots.  They are also in the library more often because of regional forums and other meetings being held in our central library’s meeting room, which E-rate funds are being used to equip with state-of-the-art sound equipment to attract even more events and to support the media covering them."

Partnerships and Collaborations

Partnerships have been essential in all the steps Jefferson Parish has taken toward “building back better” since Katrina.  The following are just a few examples:

• evening programming has been put on in conjunction with partners (and cosponsors) including Louisiana State University’s AgCenter, Tulane-Lakeside Hospital, and The Counseling and Relationship Educational Institute.
  
  
• A partnership with the New Orleans Museum of Art, interrupted by Katrina, has been resumed.

Results

Jefferson Parish Library spent $4.6 M on clean-up activities, some of which was raised though the tireless advocacy efforts of the library director and others.

Recently, the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, through the Americans for Libraries Council, awarded $1.2 M more to the Library.  This money will go toward making repairs and modifications at eight of the fifteen branches, including Live Oak, Grand Isle, Old Metairie, North Kenner and Westwego. 

Jefferson Parish is now trying to raise $10 to $14 M to “build back better”.  While this may seem like a daunting sum, it may in fact be an attainable goal—but only with sustained advocacy efforts behind it. As Lon Dickerson has said, “a closed mouth won’t get fed.”

Looking Ahead

In the spring of 2006, Lon Dickerson wrote:  “Hurricane Katrina has been labeled the worst natural disaster in our nation’s history.  “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.”  Neither can all the Mardi Gras Krewes put New Orleans together again like it was before the storm.  But, I’m confident we will eventually rebuild and recover despite the bungling efforts of government officials and others."