St. Joseph native garners FEMA funding for Iowa library after flood

St. Joseph native Tamara Glise has had a whirlwind few years asone of the lead librarians at the Cedar Rapids Public Library inIowa.

In 2008, when she was interim director of the library system, aflood wiped out 85,000 square feet of their main library. Theefforts of Ms. Glise and her colleagues to put the library back onits feet earned them Librarian of the Year award from the LibraryJournal, an honor generally bestowed on librarians from much largersystems.

The damage to the library and much of downtown Cedar Rapidsattracted the attention of Cedar Rapids native actor Ashton Kutcherand his wife, Demi Moore, who donated money to the library.

"Prairie Home Companion" host Garrison Keillor also pitched in tohelp, Ms. Glise said.

But it was the library staff's fight with the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency to get emergency funding for libraries that gotMs. Glise's name into the public eye. FEMA made an exception forCedar Rapids the year after the flood, and agreed to fund interimlibrary services.

"Ever since (the flood) we've tried to make it clear thatlibraries are essential to any community," added Ms. Glise, who saidlibraries are where residents turn to fill out important paperworkin times of disasters, or use Internet services to get in touch withloved ones.

Until last week, FEMA didn't recognize libraries as essentialservices in disaster areas. Ms. Glise, who graduated from CentralHigh School and Missouri Western State University before working inthe local library districts for nearly 20 years, said the efforts ofcongressmen helped sway FEMA. But the situation of her library wasat the crux of the argument.

"It's not very often you have a chance to influence what thefederal government does," she said. "The small part that the staffhere played in this was meaningful for us."

Ms. Glise has many family members living in the St. Joseph area,including brother Anthony Glise, an accomplished musician andeducator who hosts the International Guitar Festival here.

Jimmy Myers can be reached at jimmy.myers@newspressnow.com