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Thursday, March 09, 2006

Tourist Industry (finally) does some good

Benefit of being a major convention destination:
Professional associations like ALA want to come here. This brings attention to the plight of New Orleans libraries. This, in turn, provides an opportunity to people who write about and sell stuff to libraries to do nice things for New Orleans libraries and thusly impress the ALA folks while they're here.

ALA, Highsmith, Bretford team up for library renovation in New Orleans
The restoration of the Children’s Resource Center branch (913 Napoleon Ave.) will take place during the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans (June 22-28). Highsmith and Bretford, which provide furnishings, equipment and supplies to schools and libraries, will coordinate design with local library staff and provide the furnishings and technical expertise. ALA conference attendees from across the country will provide volunteer labor.


LJ To Restore NOPL's Devastated Alvar Street Branch
The "makeover" of the Alvar Street Branch library will be the first major joint effort to bring a severely damaged library back into service in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina struck. It will stand as a cultural beacon and economic engine to rebuild and resettle this area of the city. As now planned, the restoration project will be privately funded and supplied. In order to restore service to the neighborhood as soon as possible, the New Orleans Public Library Foundation has begun an intensive campaign to raise funds for necessary building repairs. There will be a grand reopening celebration during the ALA conference in late June.


Quick note on word choice: Observe the following sentence taken from the first press release cited, "The renovation will increase the collection up to 33 percent, increase the young adult area, improve the flow of the building and brighten the interior." Please, people, stop refering to things "flowing" into buildings in New Orleans. We've already had to correct the Mayor for doing this. It gives folks the heebiegeebies. (Is that how one would spell heebiegeebies?)

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