Author ORCID Identifier

0009-0002-7532-4598

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

10-18-2026

Abstract

Discussion of the creation of an archive of materials started in late 2023. We would conduct oral histories with people employed at the time, and discover photographs, videos, and documents from that time. We wanted to keep the traumatic nature of the event in mind for the archive. Mission statement and collection policy both reflected this mindset.

We decided on a 3-part approach: discovering documents related to the disaster and our campuses; discovering and organizing photos and videos; and conducting original oral history interviews with people affiliated with our campus at that time. We also created bibliographies of materials owned or authored by LSU Health New Orleans faculty that are of Hurricane Katrina research interest.

The discovery of materials, both documents and media, was hastened by the retirement of a long-time employee and librarians who assisted with the cleaning up of her office. This office contained thousands of images on various hard drives related to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Organizing and identifying the photos, videos and documents proved challenging. Ethical considerations were paramount since images could include patients and children as well as traumatic scenes, and the sheer volume of images to assess could cause burnout for the team. Additionally, as we developed the questions for our oral history portion of the project, we kept this foremost in our plans.

With upcoming changes to accessibility laws, choosing appropriate software and formats for this was also a consideration and proved to be a challenge, especially when dealing with 20-year-old documents.

Campus IT department has been a great partner, in participation of oral histories and helping us discover materials. A formal launch event occurred, and we anticipate that community interest in the archive will grow and provide us with opportunities to add more materials. Statistics are gathered monthly to gauge interest.

Comments

Poster Presentation from the 2026 South Central Chapter / Medical Library Association (SCC/MLA) Annual Meeting, Fort Worth, TX, October 16-20, 2026.

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