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Czech Republic Gives $111,000 to Alabama Library Destroyed by KatrinaNearly six months after the tidal surge from Hurricane Katrina destroyed it, the Mose Hudson Tapia Public Library in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, is getting a major gift from across the water. Czech Ambassador Petr Kolár will visit the small Gulf Coast town February 15 to present a check for $111,458 to library administrator Ada Williamson for the purpose of purchasing books, especially children’s books.Czech Embassy Press Secretary Daniel Novy told American Libraries that the gift was one of several that the Czech government was providing to help areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Financial contributions of roughly the same amount are going to an elementary school in Deweyville, Texas; a community pharmacy in Biloxi, Mississippi; and the University of New Orleans to establish a program in comparative urban planning and administration. Williamson told AL that one of the stipulations of the gift was that it be spent by June. The library hasn’t received the insurance money yet to build a new facility, and Williamson is operating out of office space in a strip mall. “As well as a new building to house the 40,000 or so books that we will purchase with the gift, we also need furniture,” she said. “We’re taking it one day at a time.” Novy said that the people of the Czech Republic are aware of the damage that floods can bring, because Prague libraries and archives experienced severe losses from the torrential rains of August 2002. Posted February 10, 2006; modified March 16, 2006. |
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