Blog for Relief Day
Terry Teachout and Our Girl in Chicago have amassed a huge number of information related to Hurricane Katrina over at About Last Night. Meanwhile, I’m a late entrant in the Blog for Relief Day effort, but the need isn’t going away any time soon. More information about Blog for Relief Day can be found at Instapundit. If you have a blog and want to join the effort, instructions are here.
I’m recommending the Louisiana Library Association’s Disaster Relief fund, set up "to assist school, public, and academic library restoration efforts in southeastern Louisiana." The LLA’s home page with contact information is here. If you donate to them, log your contribution at TTLB.
On a related note, check out the ALA’s page of updates from Louisiana libraries to see what librarians in the area are doing to help. This gives me hope for humanity (and a lot of mad love for my new profession, too):
Linda Fox reports: “West Feliciana Parish Library in St. Francisville
is A-OK and welcoming lots and lots of folks who have lost everything
in the New Orleans area. We are giving away books, temp-loaning
children’s books, printing out FEMA and LA Works packets, offering
crayons and coloring books, and running a quiet children’s video for
the little guys whose parents are on the internet. We’ve set up one
library card to check out some materials temporarily. Losing a few
books won’t be much of a loss after what we’ve heard. We just try to
keep thinking of things to do to help.”Beth Vandersteen reports: “Central Louisiana is bursting with evacuees
in every possible location with more streaming in even as I type.
People are pouring into the libraries to use the computers; we’ve
waived print fees for FEMA forms, etc., and stretched the time limits
whenever possible. … Rapides Parish Library in Alexandria
began delivering reading material to shelters yesterday, along with
coloring sheets, crayons, and library information flyers. We’ve put out
library information on flyers as well as through the local media, set
up collection boxes for toiletries and items needed in the shelters,
broadcast news and movies on our TVs, and issued temporary library
cards for those who want to check out materials.”
Whatever you do, please do something, no matter how small, to help the people whose lives have been wrecked.
(Technorati tags: flood aid, hurricane katrina)
New Orleans links
Over at About Last Night they have an updated news report and an extensive list of links for news about the crisis on the Gulf Coast. (Via Amanda)…