St. Joseph Catholic School in Coraopolis had library books, but no real library. Many of the books were destroyed during several floods in the school basement, including a section that had been used as a library.

Worse yet, the surviving library collection had no card catalog and the books were in disarray.

"It was an absolute mess," said Sister Grace Marie, who is in her third year as principal.

School officials recruited Helen Manna, known to many residents as the elected tax collector of Coraopolis for the past 12 years. Prior to that, she had worked 24 years in the Cornell School District -- seven years as a teacher and 15 years as librarian.

So Ms. Manna agreed to spend her summer vacation getting the St. Joseph library back on track. As word got out, the effort snowballed and help was donated from many in the community, including alumni.

Ms. Manna admits she used her two-week vacation volunteering in the library. Sister Grace Marie notes Ms. Manna also volunteered many nights and lunch hours from June through August.

"Everything was in total disarray," the principal said. The books needed to be catalogued according to the Dewey Decimal System used by libraries. Cards had to be typed for every book as well as tabs for the spines of the book.

When the school year began in August, the 124 students in grades pre-kindergarten through eighth had a beautiful first-floor library in a classroom that had been used for Spanish classes.

"Ms. Manna really had to start from scratch," Sister Grace Marie said.

The high-ceiling room is painted a light peachy taupe. During a St. Joseph's summer festival, dads were recruited to move the tall book cases from the middle to walls of the new library.

Ms. Manna donated an area rug, two child-sized rocking chairs and two reading chairs for the "easy reader" book section used by the youngest students.

Very early in the summer project, Ms. Manna discovered that Mary Hampe, the school librarian and computer teacher, had been one of her students, decades ago during the two years when Ms. Manna was an elementary school teacher. During the seven years when Ms. Manna taught at the junior high school, Mrs. Hampe was one of her library aides.

"They had quite a reunion," Sister Grace Marie said.

Mrs. Hampe's enthusiasm for the new, improved library rubbed off on her husband, Tom, who works for FedEx Ground in Moon. He told co-workers about the project and one of them, John Brandon, spread the word to his friends, relatives and neighbors.

"To date Mr. Brandon and his volunteers have donated over 1,400 books," the principal said. Those books will be added to the library when they have been entered into the card catalogue.

The Catholic Daughters of America donated $100 to the library.

Mrs. Hampe has used the Library of Congress Web site to get information on each of the books. The cards for the catalogue are being typed by Sister Mary Augustine, who works in the library at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart High School in Moon.

Sister Liliose, who works about half time at the school as a tutor, has also been helping with the library reorganization. She and Sister Marie Grace are two of the three nuns at St. Joseph School; they are members of the Felician order, and they live in the mother house, which is also located in Moon.

Mrs. Hampe "keeps the library running," Sister Marie Grace said. Every student has assigned time in the library two times per week, and the eighth-grade students have three sessions each week.

In addition to reading to the younger children and helping them pick out and check out books, Mrs. Hampe is also teaching them how to use a library.

Though Mrs. Hampe also teaches computer classes, the St. Joseph library is not yet computerized, "because that would cost quite a bit," Sister Grace Marie said.

"This library is 400 million times better than it was, but there is so much more we would like to do," Sister Grace Marie said. "We could really use an architect or a designer to tell us how to better use the space in this building. All of the classrooms in this building are used, and the library is going to outgrow this space. We have no room to expand."

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