Community Corner

Changed by 9/11: Kathryn Heaviside, Research Librarian

After 9/11, Heaviside focused on compiling a large bibliography of informational resources on the attacks.

A deluge of books was published on all aspects of the attacks in the months and years following 9/11--from building design, religion, and politics, to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the nature of grief. It was Kathryn Heaviside's job to sort them all out.

Heaviside, a research librarian at the Northport branch of the , compiled a two-inch thick binder of informational resources, many of them focused on counseling after trauma and loss. She was all too familiar with the topic.

Heaviside's sister's soon-to-be fiance disappeared on 9/11 after going into work at the World Trade Center. When her sister realized that he was there, and likely dead, she became inconsolable. Heaviside tried to help assuage her grief but it was difficult.

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"Her emotions were so overwhelming and no one knew how to deal with it. We were all lost," she said.


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