Library Disaster Planning and Recovery Handbook

Citation

Cassell, K.A. and Mercado, M.I. (2001), "Library Disaster Planning and Recovery Handbook", The Bottom Line, Vol. 14 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/bl.2001.17014aae.001

Library Disaster Planning and Recovery Handbook

Library Disaster Planning and Recovery Handbook

Alire, C. (Ed.)Neal-SchumanNew York, NY2000

Keywords: Disaster recovery, Disaster management, Libraries

Although few of us would even contemplate having to face a disaster of such magnitude, this book was born inadvertently in such a situation. As a consequence of the torrential rains which fell in Fort Collins, Colorado on July 28, 1997 and the resulting sheets of water swooping down from the foothills surrounding mountains ringing the Colorado State University campus, its Morgan Library was flooded. The Morgan Library's newly renovated lower level was entirely submerged. A portion of the library's lower level wall had caved in and a wall of water rushed into the entire lower level of the library, toppling row after row of shelves, and throwing books into murky contaminated water. Although the librarians were concerned for all of the books lying under water, there was equal concern for the one-and-a-half million volumes of materials on other floors of the building, which were untouched by the water. High on their concern list was the distinct possibility that the high humidity and temperatures of more than 95 degrees would not only affect the volumes, but also would also provide the conditions for a mold and mildew outbreak. Ultimately 500,000 of Colorado State University's bound journals and monographs were damaged. This book chronicles the intensive efforts to restore the collections and services of Colorado State University.

The Library Disaster Planning and Recovery Handbook, provides library administrators, librarians on the front lines, media relations, human resources management, facilities planners and financial disaster planners with details, advice and recommendations on all aspects of library-disaster recovery based on the lessons learned from the experiences of the Morgan Library. A great deal of thought was put into this book, as the contributors thoroughly reviewed the specific literature available in each area of the library's restoration and have described their experiences within that context. The reader does not have to be interested in library disaster recovery, nor does the reader have to be interested in disaster recovery from an academic library perspective to learn valuable lessons from the experiences of the Morgan Library.

This handbook is organized into six parts. Part 1 discusses the disaster from a management perspective. This chapter, written by the Editor and Dean of University Libraries at Colorado State University, Camila Alire, focuses on the administrative strategies necessary in disaster recovery, internal issues in library disaster administration, institutional/organizational issues in library disaster recovery, and the influence of external groups. Her honesty pervades the chapter, as she discusses the major challenges of having been Dean for eight days before the rains came. Challenges encompassed not knowing the personalities, work or administrative styles of the major players at the University. She tells us about the uninformed recommendations coming from internal and external folks concerning library disaster recovery. These ranged from not to recover any of the damaged journals, but to replace them all with microfilm; to not to recover any of the damaged materials, namely journals and monographs, but to move toward a completely digital library.

As someone who has been through the wars concerning disaster recovery and has remained the chief library administrator after the disaster, Dean Alire not only reviews the literature, but also shares with the reader the 16 lessons which she has learned from that disaster recovery literature. For example, she makes it a point to state that not only should one never think that it will not happen to you but also, that one should not dwell on the snafus and mistakes made after the fact. She recommends the following:

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  Rely heavily on your in-house experts, i.e. your staff, and keep them apprised of all issues, concerns and successes.

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  Never take no for an answer when appropriate institutional insurance is critical for safety and emergency recovery.

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  Set up regular meetings with your library disaster recovery team and make sure that you and the people to whom you report are present at each and every key institutional meeting.

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  Keep lines of communication open and immediately deal with misinformation by providing all the necessary data to the administration, so that they can be kept well informed.

And do not forget to be appreciative and frequently thank all those who have helped for the assistance you receive from them day in and day out. Her chapter, just like every one of the contributors, concludes with key recommendations and a list of relevant references.

All three parts of this handbook have articles, written by various faculty, librarians and administrators of Colorado State University, which discuss the human resources, facilities and media relations aspects of surviving disaster recovery. In addition to discussing providing library users with basic services, deploying library staff for reference services, interlibrary loan and document delivery services, the various authors also discuss various aspects of dealing with technology loss and the subsequent opportunities for enhancing the technical collection, and for providing, rethinking, and restoring technical services. Authors also discuss the "fine art of gift raising," and the establishment of "gift material procedures," restoring the collection, repurchasing books, quality control and resource sharing strategies.

Both the conceptual and practical contributions of Dean Alire and her fine contributors to the area of disaster recovery are extraordinary. We highly recommend this book for each and every library administrator who wants to be prepared for any disaster, be it flood, earthquakes or fire which finds its way to the library. A copy of this book should not only be read by each and every library administrator but also, should be permanently on his or her desk.