LJ reports on Oklahoma libraries

I talked with a librarian in Tulsa today and he told me it was his first day back to work since last week. Because of the ice storms his library had been without power until today and he (and his family) are currently making the rounds to find warm places to rest their heads at night.

Luckily for us in Edmond we didn't have the severe outage problems others in the surrounding areas had. I didn't make it to work Monday or Tuesday because the ice took out the power at Pioneer Library System headquarters - which meant me, as Virtual Library Manager, couldn't even work remotely on our beta site (which should debut to our patrons January 1). The school systems between my house and Norman are all shut down for the week which puts school librarians off course schedule for the end of the year. Not to mention a lot of them who have been without power at home since late Sunday/ early Monday. And Library Journal reports the following:

One in three Oklahomans are without power this week, mostly in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas, because of ice storms that began Sunday, December 9, and libraries have been hit hard. Lack of power and the loss of phone service have added to the emergency. At the Tulsa City-County Library, the Charles Page Library in Sand Springs sustained roof damage and the Broken Arrow Library was looted, with computers stolen, according to Linda Saferite, the library CEO....

Seriously - who would loot a public library -- there's got to be a special circle of the Inferno for jerks who loot libraries. And plus -- it's not like they had power to run home and hook the machines up to..

I hope you and yours are safe and sound.