Libraries Are Left in the Dark

The nation's biggest blackout ever sends thousands of kids in eight states home

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2003

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Teenagers were just emerging from a summer writing program at the Queens Borough Public Library's Flushing branch when the lights went out at about 4:10 p.m. on August 14. No one panicked, but there was a lot of confusion about what to do, says Branch Manager Ruth Herzberg. About 400 patrons, including 100 kids and young adults, were forced to evacuate the building while eight states from New York to Michigan plunged into darkness in the nation's biggest blackout.

Many library officials simply told patrons to go home. But others like Anne Pettit, the children's librarian at the Fort Washington branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL), went beyond the call of duty. Young children at her branch were watching a film and became frightened when the movie abruptly stopped and the room became pitch black. After calming the kids, Pettit made several calls on her cellphone to contact their relatives and friends. By evening's end, she walked four children home.

At press time, the American Library Association said it had no information about any major disruptions at libraries, and an informal survey of several branches in New York and Ohio uncovered no reports of stranded children, acute technological breakdowns, or any other serious problems.

"A lot of kids were using computers, and when the electricity went down they just went home," says Jennifer Bertrand, a spokeswoman for NYPL, which has 85 branches in Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Since the libraries' phones weren't working and there was no central command, individual branches acted independently. In a few instances, buildings with many windows became temporary safe havens. Officials at the South Beach branch in Staten Island and the Inwood branch in upper Manhattan, for example, decided to stay open until 6 p.m. to let children and adults continue to read, Bertrand adds.

The Cuyahoga County (OH) Public Library, which serves the greater Cleveland area, has a policy of never leaving children under the age of 12 alone after hours. When the 28 branches were instructed to close, employees stayed behind to ensure that all patrons were safe, says Madeline Brookshire, Cuyahoga's marketing director. "In emergency situations, we don't just show people out of the building," she says. "We wait a certain amount of time for parents to come."

Since power wasn't restored in Cuyahoga and many affected areas until August 15, most libraries remained closed on Friday. "The IT people worked to restore the network, and we opened on Saturday at 9 a.m.," Brookshire says. Although power returned to the Flushing branch at 8 a.m. Friday, the central Queens library in Jamaica didn't have electricity until 5 p.m. that day. "On Saturday we were mobbed with people," says Herzberg of the Flushing branch, which typically serves up to 6,000 people a day.