In the days and weeks following Superstorm Sandy’s impacts Downstate, residents of the Capital District have organized shipments of food, clothes, blankets and other essentials. But a group of South Colonie librarians recently helped by offering an overlooked item: books.
“I kind of got the idea in the spirit of holiday giving, knowing the devastation from the hurricane, I was sure there were librarians affected in one way or another,” said Library Media Specialist at Saddlewood Elementary School Debra Gara.
Through some research, Gara found a school in Coney Island whose library was affected in a unique way. While the school is close to the water and the basement flooded, PS 90 Edna Cohen School’s library survived the storm. However, more than 300 books that had been taken out of the library were never returned. In of filling the shelves again, the Edna Cohen School started a Titlewish.com donation campaign, asking for $1,000 to buy new books. Gara spoke to several other librarians in the district, and they collectively donated more than $100.
“We weren’t actually flooded, thank goodness,” said Eileen Makoff, Edna Cohen School librarian. “Fortunately the library is on the second floor. But about 10 percent of our collection was out with students at the time.”
The elementary school has about 600 students in pre-K through fifth grade and the library has about 3,000 books. Since the basement flooded, the school was closed for a week and students attended school in a neighboring area.
“Coney Island was one of the areas that was hit very hard by Sandy. Many members of the community were badly affected,” Makoff said. “A lot of those books were in homes that were flooded. A few of them are trickling back, but probably two thirds were lost forever.”
Makoff said the books lost were the most popular titles, like animal books and graphic novels.
“We didn’t have much to begin with. We have just a couple of dinosaur books, to lose even one is bad news,” Makoff said.
South Colonie Roessleville Library Media Specialist Kimberly Ringer jumped on board when she heard about the Coney Island library.
“I just think that it’s a way to help that most people might forget about. The group of us being librarians, one of the things that came in mind to us was how devastating it is to lose part of your collection,” Ringer said.
Donations were collected until Friday, Dec. 21, but the Coney Island library surpassed its goal days before the deadline.
“It’s always good to get extra money to build a collection. You can never have too many library books,” Ringer said. “Every librarian needs more money at all times.”
Makoff said people are also donating books directly to the library.
“It’s been really amazing. People are kind,” Makoff said.
Although the students are back at Edna Cohen, Makoff said since the basement was flooded, they have a large boiler outside for the heat. The basement was home to a lot of essentials, and the school still does not have Internet of phones because those systems were damaged.
“In terms of the community, things are still very much shut down. To my understanding, a lot of the students are without heat, which is terrible. It’s cold and flu season. A lot of them are sick,” she said.
Yet as the town still copes with all of their losses, the community is trying to get back on their feet.
“We’re not (back) to normal. But everybody’s in good spirits and working very hard. The kids are working hard,” she said. “And they’re enthusiastic about their library, too. It’s great.”