New Orleans Public Library


The New Orleans Public Library is the public library service of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.

History

The system began in 1895 in the Fisk Free and Public Library in a building on Lafayette Square. Abijah Fisk was a merchant who, over fifty years earlier, had left his house—at the corner of Iberville and Bourbon Streets—to the city for use as a library. Subsequent donations had resulted in libraries and collections not completely free and open to the citizenry. An 1896 city ordinance proposed by Mayor John Fitzpatrick combined the Fisk collection with a newer municipal library. It eventually became known as the New Orleans Public Library.
On January 18, 1897, the library opened its doors to the public. At that time the collection comprised over 35,000 volumes. A significant portion of the collection was obtained from the Fisk Free and Public Library and the Public School Lyceum and Library. The first librarian was William Beer who concurrently worked as a librarian at another library in New Orleans: the Howard Memorial Library. Beer resigned from NOPL to focus on his work at the Howard Memorial Library in 1906. His successor was Henry Gill.
A turn-of-the-20th-century donation of $50,000 from businessman Simon Hernsheim allowed the library to begin building a significant collection. In 1902 the city received $250,000 from Andrew Carnegie to build a new main library and five branches. By 1908, the new main library was open at Lee Circle and branches were open at Royal Street & Frenchmen in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood, on Pelican Avenue in Algiers, and on Napoleon Avenue near Magazine Street uptown. In 1911 and 1915, further Carnegie branches opened at 2940 Canal St and Dryades & Philip respectively.
By 2005, NOPL had a dozen branches in addition to a newer main library on Loyola Avenue. The branches included Algiers and Napoleon, mentioned above, although renamed.

Effects of Hurricane Katrina

NOPL was severely impacted by Hurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005. Damage to branch locations ran from two windows broken at the Cita Dennis Hubbell Branch in Algiers to complete destruction of the Martin Luther King Branch in the heavily damaged northern section of the Lower 9th Ward. Photographs of branch building damage are available on the library's website.
With the devastation of the city and the crippling of city government, NOPL was forced to lay off 90 percent of its employees. All libraries were closed for over two months. The 19 remaining staff members, when they were able to re-enter the city, began surveying damage and salvaging assets.
Two branches—Hubbell and Nix —reopened with limited services on 31 October 2005. Part of the Main Library also reopened. Damage to the NOPL system is estimated at $26–30 million. Library administrators began looking for outside sources of funds to begin hiring additional staff.

Branches

From the 4 libraries in 1908, the New Orleans Public Library system continued to expand. In 2005, the system included three regional, three major and six neighborhood branches; as of 11 June 2008 the system had ten branches, including temporary branches. By early 2017, there were fourteen branches open, with one additional branch scheduled to re-open in 2018.

Former branches in the 20th century

From 1908 to 1959, the main branch was on Lee Circle; it was demolished after the opening of the current main branch. The Marigny Branch on Frenchmen & Royal at Washington Square, one of the original Carnegie Branch libraries, was severely damaged during Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and demolished. From 1915 to 1965 there was a Central City branch at Dryades & Philip Street, originally the main "Colored" library during the era of racial segregation. A former Mid-City branch was on Canal Street at Gayoso.

Summary of branch changes from 2005 to date