In Reversal, FEMA Agrees To Fund Interim Library Service in Cedar Rapids
Will key role of libraries in disaster relief be memorialized in new policy?
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 12/28/2009
- Lobbying from legislators helped win appeal
- Current law does not recognize library role in disaster recovery
- $379,127 will go to rent, furniture, and construction costs
In a major reversal that acknowledges the key role libraries play after disasters, the flood-damaged 
Cedar Rapids Public Library (CRPL), IA, has won an appeal requesting Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) support for interim library service.
It’s unclear whether the $379,127 from FEMA represents a one-time change or the beginning of a new policy, but CRPL director Bob Pasicznyuk called it “a major victory not just for the Cedar Rapids Public Library, but for any library that may be in a similar situation in the future.”
A FEMA letter hinted at a policy change: “The Assistant Administrator for the Disaster Assistance Directorate has determined that the City of Cedar Rapids Main Library provides essential community services and is eligible for temporary relocation assistance.”
Stale policyThe Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, first passed in 1988 well before libraries become hubs for Internet and other community services, does not define libraries among “essential community services,” and FEMA for months was obdurate in denying CRPL’s appeal.
(LJ Editor Francine Fialkoff editorialized about the issue in the 5/15/09 LJ: FEMA Fails Again.)
However, just as Gulf Coast libraries offered a lifeline to those displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, CRPL similarly stepped up after a massive flood in 2008 that also took the main library out of commission. In fact, the 11-member CRPL management team won LJ’s Librarian of the Year award in 2009.
“We meet needs otherwise unmet in our community, as do libraries across the country,” said Assistant Library Director Tamara Glise, who was instrumental in pushing the issue. “It’s heartening to learn that FEMA recognizes that officially.”
How money will be used
“The FEMA money will be used to pay for the temporary relocation of the library, which essentially means three items: rent, the build-out of the temporary facility (things like drywall and paint, etc.), and furniture,” Amber Mussman, CRPL spokeswoman, told LJ.
“Unfortunately no staff will be hired back with this money," she added. "We are hoping to be able to repay our contributors (Foundation, Friends) for their assistance with the relocation costs and that money would potentially go into the new building funds."
In a separate proceeding, FEMA determined that the main library itself suffered more than 50% damage and has already committed to paying 90 percent of the costs for a like downtown library on a new site; given that the new library would be larger, FEMA's share of the total would be smaller. (Currently, most library service is offered from temporary space created at a mall.)
Policy change?
Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, in April was frustrated with FEMA's response; today, she told LJ she wasn’t sure whether the policy has changed or whether the agency was nudged by letters from legislators, including Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who chairs a key subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
She said legislators have suggested that they’ll change the policy when the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) is reauthorized, perhaps within the next nine months.
If so, when the president declares a disaster and supplemental funds are sent, she said, the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) could designate that a portion of those supplemental funds go to libraries serving victims of the disaster, including temporary library facilities and computers.
Library advocates, she said, have the issue on their radar screen, because every time there’s a disaster, damaged libraries are needed to serve their communities, “and, since Katrina, we’ve done a pretty good job of heightening the sensitivity to how much the public depends on their public library.”
And Cedar Rapids, she added, presents a very good example, given that, after the library found temporary space, and FEMA wouldn’t pay for it, staffers volunteered to help construct the new library facility.
