First Lady Helps Gulf Coast School Libraries

Laura Bush Foundation awards $500,000 to help rebuild media centers in LA, MS

By Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 6/1/2006

Ten school libraries in Louisiana and Mississippi were recently awarded $500,000 by the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries as part of an effort to help rebuild Gulf Coast media centers that were destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma last year.

Speaking on May 3 at the St. Bernard Unified School in Chalmette, LA, to announce the awards, Bush said she had longed to help school districts in the devastated regions rebuild their libraries. “For many school librarians across the Gulf Coast, your old collections were your pride and joy, representing years of care and hard work,” said Bush, a former media specialist.

Bush singled out St. Bernard Parish, where every school library in the district was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, including a 29,000 volume collection at Chalmette High School, one of the grant recipients. “I know you were especially proud of your collection of Life magazines, which dated back to the 1940s,” Bush said. “And the students used these as primary sources to read about World War II, to read the lead up to World War II, and what happened when those veterans came home from overseas at the end of the war. But when Katrina struck, every book and every magazine was lost to eight feet of water.”

Bush also spoke about Second Street Elementary School in Bay St. Louis, MS, where librarian Marianne Higginbotham had always taught her students to take good care of their library books. “As the hurricanes bore down on their homes, many of these children took Marianne’s lessons to heart,” Bush said. “During the evacuation, most of their possessions were left behind and ultimately lost. But as they fled, these kids made sure to save their library books.”

Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma damaged or destroyed 1,121 private and public schools in the Gulf Coast region. In Louisiana, 198 public schools were heavily damaged or destroyed, and in Mississippi 11 public schools reported a total loss of their library, while 32 schools suffered partial damage. School districts in Texas, Florida, and Alabama have also reported losses. The cost of building a book collection for an elementary school library—excluding shelving and computers—is about $50,000 and more than double that amount for a secondary school library, Bush said.

After hearing about the plight of so many schools. Bush met with the leadership council of her foundation and in March they created the Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative, a separate fund of the foundation, to specifically help devastated school libraries.

For the first round of funding, seven schools in Louisiana and three in Mississippi were chosen by an advisory committee of school librarians from around the country.

The foundation is still accepting applications and a second round of grants will be awarded this summer. All schools in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Florida, and Alabama that were affected by the hurricanes are encouraged to apply.

For more information and a complete list of winners, visit www.laurabushfoundation.org.