Bear Creek Branch Narrative November 1992

Harris County Public Library _ bear gfff.k _ Branch Narrative NOVEMBER 1992 Month, Year November was a memorable month in many ways. The slipping of books from the summer and early fall was finally coming to an end. By the Thanksgiving break the orignal books waiting to be slipped would have been finished. This was happening at an opportune time as the heaviest part of school reports and projects were occurring. Instead of the fall Standard & Poor’s economics report, there was a major presidential election assignment. The history fair continued as well as literature projects and biographical (mainly presidents) reports. A photocopier needed some parts as it was making smudged copies. A reader printer was also repaired. On November 9th, Liz Ronald started as the new reference librarian. Pam Trest the county part-time shelver resigned and the temporary part- time shelver, Nancy Gammerdinger assumed Pam’s position. Barbara Essig became the temporary part-time shelver. On Saturday November 21st at approximately 3:00 PM, a tornado struck the library. Approximately 75-100 people were inside at the time. There was no warning of the storm until a power failure occurred and then high winds began and the sky became extremely dark. Patrons and staff had time to take cover under tables. The passage of the tornado took approximately 3 minutes. At that point police arrived and ordered the immediate evacuation of the building. One teenage girl suffered cuts on her arm from flying glass and required nine stitches. Police placed the building off limits until engineers could determine the safety of the building. It was found to have 90% of the roof damaged or destroyed. Two of the air conditioning units were turned upside down on the roof and shafts from them had fallen through the ceiling. One air conditioning unit had been blown into the shrubbery in front of the building. The fourth unit had parts scattered throughout the immediate area. Two windows were broken (in the adult nonf ic t ion- s ou th part of the building, and the juvenile nonfiction-west part of the building.) One window in the west part of the building sustained a large crack. There was extensive ceiling tile damage as the rain water collected in them and they collapsed. The areas hardest hit were behind the circulation desk, directly above the circulation desk, above the CD-ROM catalogs on the west side of the building and behind ready reference. The workroom and lounge also sustained heavy ceiling damage. At 3:45 PM the water was ankle deep in the adult nonfiction area. Books on the lower shelves in this area^'were wet. The remaining books sitting in the lounge waiting to be slipped were completely destroyed as those behind the circulation desk on the "snag" table. However only about 5% of the entire collection was completely lost. In the parking lot at least half a dozen patron cars received heavy to minor damage. One staff member had 2 of her car windows blown Signature of Branch or Bookmobile Librarian In your narrative summarize this month’s employee activities and honors, building maintenance problems, community changes affecting adult services in the library, adult programs given, collection development in the adult and young adult areas, and library usage. August 1990