New Orleans deals with layoffs, damage.(New Orleans Public Library )

Nearly 200 New Orleans Public Library staff have been let go as part of Mayor Ray Nagin's October 5 directive laying off 3,000 city employees in the wake of "financial constraints in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."

City Archivist Wayne Everard told American Libraries that 181 NOPL staff members had been laid off and the remaining 19 have been retained as essential to the operation of city government. "Thus far," he said, "we have been working on NOPL business, but if the city decides that we are needed for other tasks, we are subject to reassignment."

NOPL Director Bill Johnson told AL that the library's immediate goals were to "reorganize ourselves utilizing the …