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Date 6-20-06
Contact Linda Skupien 228.872.4273
WITH PHOTO
Ocean Springs—The marine library at the
University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Laboratory
(GCRL) is taking another step toward recovery from Hurricane Katrina
with the help of a $35,000 grant from Rotary International.
The grant to the Gunter Library was received last week from the
Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund established by the Rotary Zones 29-30
that include Mississippi, Alabama and 10 other states.
Joyce M. Shaw, head librarian at GCRL, said the funds will help
replace library equipment and furniture destroyed by more than a
foot of storm surge from Hurricane Katrina. In spite of the loss
of filing cabinets, computers, study tables, desks, chairs, photocopy
machine and reference materials, the library reopened to provide
basic services when classes resumed on the GCRL campus three weeks
after the storm.
"Gunter Library is one of the few special libraries for marine
sciences in the entire nation, and it is an asset to Southern Miss,"
said Edward G. McCormack, interim Southern Miss librarian. "We
are determined to preserve and maintain the materials in it and
are very grateful for this grant."
Local sponsor for the recovery project is the Rotary Club of Ocean
Springs where Shaw is a member and on the club’s board of directors.
The grant is part of more than $3 million that the Rotary fund has
provided to libraries, schools, not-for-profits and charitable organizations
for Katrina recovery in the disaster area.
The GCRL is part of the university's School of Ocean Sciences within
the College of Science and Technology.
Click to enlarge
With help from Rotary International, University of Southern Mississippi faculty and staff Dr. Jeffrey M. Lotz, coastal sciences chair, right, Joyce M. Shaw, head librarian of the Gunter Library at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, and Edward G. McCormack, interim university librarian, say goodbye to cardboard boxes serving as filing cabinets in the Ocean Springs facility post-Katrina. Shaw displays the $35,000 hurricane relief check given by Rotary International for library equipment and furniture. (Photo by Linda Skupien)
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