After the Deluge: Long-Term Responses to Library Disasters with Some Lessons for

the Future

ACRL Western European Studies Section, Research and Planning Committee

ALA Annual Conference, Anaheim

29 June 2008

Mark Peterson

100+ Libraries Flooded800,000+ Books Damaged in Germany & Czech Republic

Prague Municipal Library

Technical University Dresden,Computer Science Faculty Library

Institute of Archaelogy in Prague

http://www.arup.cas.cz/povoden/en/index.htm

August 14, 2002

Repairing the Damage

“Jiří Polišenský closes the vacuum chamber used to restore valuable books damaged in the 2002 floods.”Prague Post 8/10/2005 http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2005/Art/0811/news2.php

“SOGGY: At Prague's City Library, workers gather some of the 20,000 books to be frozen pending restoration.” CSM 8/30/2002 www.csmonitor.com/2002/0830/p06s01-woeu.html

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Lessons Described by the Librarians

• Organized communication is essential

• Disaster plan needs to include contracts, risk assessments, staff responsibilities, collection priority lists & adequate supplies

• Decisions on what books to save should be made on site

• Fast transport to freezers more important than amount of time in the water

• Books should be cleaned and formed before they are frozen

• Unexpected costs of freezing & storage threatened collections

• Mold spores can survive freezing and can remain in library space

• Vacuum packing with blotting paper and multiple cycles was the best method for drying frozen books

• Slow drying often warped bound materials significantly but had to be done because of the cost of other methods

• Volunteers often make costly mistakes

• Do not store valuable items in the basement!

General Lessons

1) Disaster planning saves libraries

2) Goodwill is useless if you do not direct it

3) True friends provide real help

4) It is more than just the books

5) Nothing will happen without money

6) Full recovery takes a long time