Free Louisiana Saves the Library by Emily Beck Cogburn Page B

“He shoved it in a corner instead. Typical.”
    â€œPut it back there near the door. I’ll make some calls and find out what we are supposed to do with it. Let’s sit and talk for a bit.”
    Hope rolled her eyes and deposited the box by the back exit. They moved into the kitchen area, where Mr. Henry poured a cup of coffee for himself and added a generous amount of nondairy creamer.
    Louise, Hope, and Sylvia took chairs around the folding table. Mr. Henry lowered himself into the last seat like someone in pain. “I have arthritis, back problems—all the old-man afflictions,” he explained. “Not to mention the stomach. Can’t drink coffee without all this whitener.”
    Sylvia arched an eyebrow. Louise nodded in agreement with her friend’s unspoken message. Everything in the place was breaking down, even the employees.
    Mr. Henry sipped his coffee. “I’m really happy you all are on board. Mr. Foley and I are getting old. We need some fresh blood in here. No offense, Hope.”
    â€œNone taken, Mr. Henry. I ain’t no spring chicken.” Hope scraped back her chair and poured herself a cup of black coffee. “I just hope these city girls stick around for a while. Last new person we had up in here skedaddled after a few months. Guess small towns ain’t for everyone.”
    Mr. Henry ignored Hope’s comment. “There’s a few things that need doing. A newsletter, like this one.” He produced a Saint Jude Parish Library flyer from the pocket of his tweed sport coat. “Someone needs to do programs for the young adults—the teenagers, you know. Hope here is in charge of the younger children, but we’ve never done anything for the teenagers. Then, there’s interlibrary loan, cataloging, and adult programming. I know the Saint Jude Parish Libraries do book clubs and computer classes. I think our patrons would really like those.”
    â€œWell, Mr. Henry, I would love to do your young adult stuff, if that’s okay with Louise here,” Sylvia said.
    â€œGreat,” Louise said. Dealing with teenagers brought back too many memories of her own awkward, miserable high school experiences. Let Sylvia organize vampire games and read the Divergent books. “I can do computer classes, book clubs, and interlibrary loans.”
    â€œThis is going to work great. I know it.” Mr. Henry glanced up as Mr. Foley’s office door opened. “I take it that y’all have met our director.”
    Mr. Foley stopped at the head of the table. “Mr. Henry, don’t you and these young ladies need to get to work?”
    â€œWe were just getting acquainted.” Mr. Henry got up, taking even more time than he’d needed to sit down, and washed out his coffee cup in the sink. Still moving like a man in pain, he walked out to the patron area.
    Hope glared at Mr. Foley. He stared back at her for a moment before retreating to his office. When the door was closed behind him, Hope said, “I known that man all my life, but that don’t mean I like his fat butt.” She dragged two chairs over to the computer near the worktable. “Well, the party’s over. Now I got to teach y’all the ropes.”

    An hour later, Louise’s neck hurt from craning to see the computer screen around Sylvia’s mass of red hair. Hope had taught them her cataloging method, which consisted of searching the Library of Congress Web site and copying their record. If the librarians at the nation’s book depository hadn’t yet classified the title, she tossed it back on the truck. It took willpower for Louise to resist pushing her out of the way and taking over. But she and Sylvia settled for shooting each other incredulous glances as Hope copied the records after giving them no more than a cursory glance.
    Hope hit a button and a miniature dot matrix printer churned out the labels. She pulled the dust cover from the