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I Wonder Who's Using Us Now: Hurricane Katrina's Influence On Use Of Special Collections At The University Of New Orleans Library, Florence M. Jumonville

The Southeastern Librarian

On the afternoon of Friday, August 26, 2005, a student approached the reference desk at the University of New Orleans (UNO) library’s Louisiana and Special Collections Reading Room and returned the book from the UNO Faculty Authors Collection that he had been perusing. It was a routine transaction, and department personnel had no inkling that this one would be the last that their department would make for more than four months. Weatherwatchers, however, already were aware of the threat posed by Hurricane Katrina, which was then churning in the Gulf of Mexico. Television broadcasts that evening brought alarming forecasts which …