The stereotypical view of the librarian is that of an old woman sitting behind her desk silencing library-goers. This summer librarians from ETSU and all over the country busted that stereotype apart with sledgehammers and shovels.
In June 2006 the American Library Association met for its conference in New Orleans. The conference was the first to be held in New Orleans since the hurricane and included the opportunity for librarians to rebuild what was damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Among those volunteers were Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, Marie Jones and Kelly Hensley from ETSU.
“It was nice to go down there and to be [with] librarians of all ages with shovels and sledgehammers,” Hensley said. Hensley is an associate professor and has been with ETSU for 15 years.
The first thing she noticed in New Orleans was the cleanliness of the downtown area. “The city is so nice to visit now for those tourist attractions because . they’ve done such a good job cleaning up those parts,” Hensley said.
Marie Jones had visited New Orleans a number of times. “When we arrived . it seemed much the way it always had – perhaps cleaner, if anything. But the contrast between the French Quarter and the convention center area and the neighborhoods where we did volunteer work was stark.”
Neighborhoods surroun-ding the downtown area showed little to no improve-ment despite the length of time since the hurricane hit. Hensley and a group of volunteers were sent to a library in the 7thWard.
Besides one other visit to the site no one else had been to this library since the waters receded. In the blazing heat they took out shelving and ripped up carpet inside a building with no air conditioning or electricity. For protection the volunteers wore hazardous material suits and respirators.
“The library itself was a complete loss except for the structure,” Hensley said, “So we took out everything and threw away books, which is very hard to do for a librarian.”
The ALA teamed up with local charities to provide other volunteer opportunities. Some groups gutted houses in Slidell and the 9th Ward. Marie Jones helped to pack up the library of a local high school that had to relocate.
Along with the work they did as volunteers, the librarians were also able to take a tour of the 9th Ward, an area heavily devastated. “There are almost no FEMA trailers in the 9th Ward because there are no houses to park them outside of. It made me so angry that in America we couldn’t do better,” Hensley said.
Despite the desolate circumstances of New Orleans, Hensley described the people as optimistic and full of hospitality. “It’s not just a southern welcome, it’s a ‘Thank God you’re here!’ welcome, very heartfelt . We’ll never have a welcome like that again, no matter what city we go to.”
“I would really like to go back and do more volunteer work,” Jones said, “There is so much still left to be done.”
“It was the most fulfilling thing I had ever done at a conference,” said Hensley.
The work Hensley did in New Orleans also helped her to appreciate home. “I can’t tell you how good it is to live in East Tennessee where we have no fear of hurricanes, we get almost no tornadoes, the Appalachian Mountains are so old that we don’t have earthquakes, and floods come and go very quickly . It made me feel safe to get back here.”
Even though more than a year has passed since hurricane Katrina the Gulf Coast is still in desperate need of help. Many organizations, like Operation Helping Hands, will provide free housing and meals to volunteers. For more information visit http://ccano.org/programs.htm.

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