“Don’t be afraid to be amazing!” Artist Susan Guevara chose this admonition from singer-songwriter Andy Offutt Irwin as the message of her murals for the freshly renovated Children’s Resource Center branch library. And “amazing” is an apt description of this remarkable renovation, accomplished in five days by staff of Highsmith, Inc., Bretford and about 150 librarians attending the American Library Association (ALA) convention in New Orleans.

The project has transformed this small Carnegie library into a sunny showpiece with new furniture, floor coverings, equipment, and collection, a floor-to-ceiling lifelike oak tree sculpture, and Guevara’s murals of Chato the Cat secondlining through New Orleans. ALA envisioned the project as a five-day makeover, relying on volunteer labor, and services, furniture, and materials donated by the library industry. “We speak often of how libraries build communities, and we now have the chance to show the country and world that librarians build communities, too,” said ALA President Michael Gorman.

Teamwork nurtures Success

To launch the project, Diedre Ross, ALA’s Director of Conference Services, and Michael Dowling, Director of Chapter Relations, approached Peg Sullivan, Director of Merchandising for Highsmith, a Wisconsin-based distributor of library supplies, furniture, and equipment. With NOPL staff, they settled on the Children’s Resource Center, a lightly damaged branch located at Napoleon Avenue and Magazine Street in uptown New Orleans.

This small branch exemplifies the traditional ideal of the American neighborhood library: a human-scale building at the center of neighborhood life, surrounded by schools, churches, playgrounds, and stores.

Sullivan drew on her experience as a theatre director to orchestrate this production. NOPL staff Sharon Kohl, Jeff Bostick, and Judy Perret prepared for the work by weeding outdated materials from the collection. Local architect Eean McNaughton and contractor Citadel Builders completed necessary building repairs, funded by donations to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation.

On the morning of June 23, the first wave of ALA volunteers arrived. Over the next five days, they removed the old collection and furniture, tore up and removed carpet, prepared and painted walls and window frames, organized the new collection, and, in the hours before the June 27 re-opening, filled the shelves with these new materials. A helpful neighbor, St. George’s Episcopal School, turned its gym into the staging area in which volunteers organized thousands of new books for CRC (and cooled off from the June heat).

Nearly 100% of the interior—from furniture to floor coverings, valued at $200,000 or more—was donated by over 20 manufacturers and vendors. Building repairs necessary for the interior renovation totaled $43,000. The lead donors for this work were the Friends of South Carolina Libraries and the Association of Public Library Administrators of South Carolina. These two groups, led by former New Orleanian Jim Johnson, raised $21,000 for the project. Other notable donations came from students at two New Orleans schools: the Isidore Newman Lower School, and the Trinity Episcopal School Pre-School and Kindergarten. (For more, www.nutrias.org)

Let the celebration begin

By 3:30pm on June 27, the library had indeed been transformed. With lemonade, a tent, and the lively trans-Caribbean tunes of the Panorama Jazz Band to ease the sun’s effects, 100 friends, donors, and volunteers gathered to mark the re-opening of the Children’s Resource Center. Before the ribbon was cut, Highsmith CEO Paul Moss praised the enthusiasm and “can-do” spirit displayed by professionals and volunteers alike, and ALA President Gorman spoke with pride about librarians’ donation of time, work, and perspiration to begin rebuilding New Orleans’ libraries. New Orleans Chief Administrative Officer Brenda Hatfield (herself a librarian) thanked the library community for bringing their convention to New Orleans and launching NOPL’s Rebuild Campaign.

With the interior transformation completed, fundraising for a second phase of renovation has begun. Roof and window repairs estimated at $100,000 will complete the building’s preservation, ensuring its service to New Orleans families for decades to come.

To support the second phase renovation, contact Ronald Biava, Rebuild Campaign consultant at 504 596-2615 or ronbiava@earthlink.net

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