Librarian Mandy Henk, one of the volunteers at the Occupy Wall Street People's Library, called in this morning to tip us off to the news that six volunteers went to the Sanitation Department as directed to pick up the thousands of books and other materials that were seized when Zuccotti Park was raided. And... that tweet from NYC Mayor Bloomberg's office notwithstanding, here's what they found:
“There are only about 25 boxes of books; many of the books are destroyed. Laptops here but destroyed. Can’t find tent or shelves....Many books destroyed. Most equipment -and structures missing. . . most of library is missing (ALL of the reference section btw), damaged or destroyed. “
The thing about librarians is, they're organized. They went to the Department of Sanitation armed with a list of what was taken. Mandy says the Sanitation Department told the librarians to come back tomorrow to see if more books turn up from the garbage pile. But even if more do, Mandy cautions, those books are not likely to be usable.
Ummm, Mayor Bloomberg? Do you really want to run afoul of librarians?