Librarians for Louisiana: Desk Set Book Drive

Feb 18, 2010 by Talisa Chang

Books and beer were the stars of Tuesday night’s Mardi Gras party and book drive at Daddy’s Bar in Williamsburg. The event featured Louisiana R&B DJ sets, amazing raffle prizes, and free pints of Six Point beer for donators, and was hosted by The Desk Set, a lovely group of librarians and bibliophiles committed to supporting institutions that promote literacy. This was the third year that the Mardi Gras fundraising event aimed to provide books to A.P. Tureaud in New Orleans, a public K-6 grade school in the 7th ward. This year’s goal is 840 books requested by teachers for classroom sets.

Greenpointers and school librarians Maria Falgoust and Sarah Murphy, both 33 with Masters in Library and Information Science from the Palmer School, founded The Desk Set in 2006 when it became apparent that many librarians and archivists lived in the Greenpoint area. The Desk Set started as a social group that would have parties and go on literary outings to places like the Rare Book Room at the New York Academy of Medicine. The group offers a network of resources and like-minds for librarians in the city.

“A lot of the librarians we knew had explored other careers along the way,” Murphy explained. “One thing a lot of us have in common is that as we get older, our interests are expanding rather than getting more specific. One way to embrace that is to be a librarian, because there are so many different kinds of libraries and work.”

The Desk Set quickly added the goal of promoting literacy and fundraising for organizations like Books Through Bars, the New Orleans Public Library, Behind the Book, and Passages Academy. Now, the group organizes about six events a year, three or four being major fundraising events. The Desk Set has also expanded to include dozens of core members throughout New York, and hundreds of other bibliophiles.

“As soon as we started to get into events, we knew we wanted there to be a charitable component,” Murphy said. “[After Hurricane Katrina], it seemed like a natural thing to use The Desk Set to get more resources, and also [for the fundraising] to have a literacy component.”

Falgoust is from New Orleans, and her parents, who still live there, have helped to connect with A.P. Tureaud and deliver books to them. This year the school has requested classroom sets of dozens of books, from The Little Prince to Shiloh, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Bluest Eye, the Ramona series, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Bud, Not Buddy, and others, both modern and classic.

“The teachers are so warm,” said Falgoust, who was able to accompany her parents on the book delivery last year. “The school is really cheery and bright and colorful. It feels like people care.”

Anyone can purchase the books through The Desk Set’s amazon.com account online, but guests at the party were able to browse the titles in a beautiful, oversized, hand-stitched book Falgoust had made for the occasion, and were also treated to a free pint of beer for their contributions.

“Reading is personal, and everyone wants to share that,” Murphy said. “When we read a book that we love and is important, it’s in our nature to want everyone to read it too. We’ve got a good selection here of new and old titles, and I hope that everyone will find something that they want to share.”

Most people have fond memories of their childhood books, but during a time when libraries are often seen as obsolete in the digital age, librarians are negotiating and often defending their passion for literacy and printed books given the new terrain.

“So many people have said: libraries, do we even need them?” Murphy said. “Libraries are changing just like anything else. A lot of us entering the field want to be on the forefront of that. But as excited as we all are to be involved in what information literacy is and is becoming, most of us also feel strongly in the power of the printed word and in books in general. We also know that not everyone has a computer, and it’s dangerous to assume that people to have access to one, or to the Internet. We’re thrilled to help others read books, though we’re not discounting e-readers and the like.”

To donate books or for more information about The Desk Set, visit thedeskset.org