How You Can Help the Louisville Free Public Library Recover from Disaster

I don’t usually blog about libraries here, but the Louisville Free Public Library needs our help – Louisville, KY received about 6″ of rain in 3 hours this week, creating a flash flood situation that filled their Main Library with sewage-contaminated water. Early estimates are that damages are in the $1 million range for the main branch, with approximately 10,000 items (books, audiobooks, and the like) lost. The servers flooded; the bookmobiles flooded; the processing room where the new materials live flooded; 40 new computers for a branch library are gone, as are countless other items. In a time when libraries all over the country are cutting staff, salaries, hours, and purchases because of the economy, I imagine that recovery at LFPL is going to be a long and painful process.

To understand the extent of the damage, you really need to see the photos. The one to the left (click to embiggen for full effect) made me tear up a little yesterday. Here you can see one library staffer’s office – that’s the doorknob just above the water line. This one shocked even the non-librarian spouse. This one, from this morning, reminds us that even when the water starts to subside, there is a whole lot of damage to deal with and materials that are simply unsalvageable.

In the face of all of this bad news for LFPL, the good news is that there are ways for us to help.