A pair of workers wearing hard hats examine field samples in a photograph on the cover of BP’s 2009 Sustainability Review. The year-old report’s title would now provoke either a laugh or a disgusted look from Gulf Coast residents — “Operating at the energy frontiers: How a revitalized BP is driving innovative, efficient and responsible operations.” The book is on display in Middleton Library as part of LSU Libraries’ efforts to make available any resources related to the worsening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The department recently launched an “Oil Spill Subject Guide” on its website and set up the display in Middleton’s lobby last week to help students find oil spill resources both online and in the library.”We know it’s a topic we’re getting a lot of questions about, and the librarians wanted to have something people could see and touch in addition to the website,” said Nancy Colyar, assistant dean of Libraries. The display uses graphics to show students “what happened, what’s next [and] where are more resources” and lists the call number ranges for topics in the library like coasts, marine pollution, environmental sciences, water pollution and environmental effects of industries and plants. Some of the library’s related books, including “Black Tide” and “Oil Spill Dispersants: Efficacy and Effects,” sit on display to attract passersby. “This is such a significant disaster, and we always want to make information available to the  community,” said Jorie Porter, an assistant librarian who helped create the website and display. “We’re trying to get as much information as we can centralized in one place.” This portion of the LSU Libraries website, which Colyar said launched “within days of the [April 20] explosion,” compiles anything and everything related to the spill — articles and information sorted by tags for easy browsing by topic, historical and current maps and even Twitter updates being posted about the spill. Librarians will continue to update the site with information as it becomes available. Porter said she is working with the Special Libraries Association, an international nonprofit organization, to expand the amount of information included on the website. She said the site will get a makeover before summer’s end to include the new information.Porter said all of the linked resources are available to anyone with a PAWS ID — some use subscription-based databases — though a majority of the information is available to anyone visiting the site. Porter said many University courses — like freshman and sophomore English classes — require departmental writing assignments addressing current events and controversial issues. The oil spill, she said, will surely be a writing topic this year, and the library has a responsibility to help make related information as accessible as possible for students.
 
 
 
—-Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]