ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 15, Number 10 January 27, 2006 In This Issue: Katrina photo display on Capitol Hill: Invite your Members of Congress today! WHO/WHAT: On Wednesday, February 1st on Capitol Hill, the American Library Association will sponsor a display of photographs of libraries in the Gulf states that were damaged and destroyed by hurricanes in 2005. Please encourage your Members of Congress and their staff to stop by to view these moving photographs and talk to librarians from Mississippi and Louisiana about how the hurricanes affected libraries in their schools and communities. Gulf Coast residents affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita are asking that Members of Congress keep libraries in mind as they make decisions on how to allocate funds for hurricane recovery. Libraries are essential to our schools and communities, and deserve to be included in any federal funding plan. Present to talk with Members of Congress and staff will be: Robert Lipscomb, Director Harrison County Library System (Mississippi) Diane Brown, Deputy State Librarian of Louisiana WHEN/WHERE: Photographs will be on display on Wednesday, February 1st: Dirksen Senate Office Building (SDG-50) from 10:00 am to noon Rayburn House Office Building Room 2216 from 1:30 pm until 3:30 pm. To look up and contact your Members of Congress, visit: http://capwiz.com/ala/. Or dial the Capitol Switchboard number (24 hours): 202-224-3121. BACKGROUND: Hundreds of public, school, and academic libraries were damaged or destroyed by the hurricanes of 2005. In Louisiana, 110 school libraries and 19 public libraries were destroyed. In Mississippi, 64 school libraries and 11 public libraries were destroyed or partially destroyed. In Alabama, one school library and 2 public libraries were destroyed. Every library in the FEMA-designated affected zip codes has sustained some damage-and most libraries are desperately lacking the funds to rebuild. Libraries-particularly public libraries-proved essential to evacuees in the months following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Thousands of evacuees used libraries in neighboring states to contact friends and family members, to file FEMA forms, and to find new places to live. Many of these libraries -in Texas, Mississippi and Alabama --kept their doors open late to help evacuees and incurred personnel and facility expenses they cannot afford. These libraries need your help. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1615 New Hampshire Ave., N.W., First Floor, Washington, D.C. 20009-2520; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Don Essex, Melanie Anderson, Erin Haggerty, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Carrie Lowe, Kathy Mitchell, Carrie Russell. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.