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Although issues on disaster prevention have extensively been studied in the literature and have been embedded in everyday library practices all over the world, the vast majority of Greek libraries have not developed any specific measures. This paper seeks to review several disaster management approaches for academic libraries and to make suggestions for Greek academic libraries by analyzing the results of a nationwide survey.

The literature regarding disaster management approaches for academic libraries is reviewed and accompanied by a survey conducted in July 2010 in order to study the level of risk and disaster preparedness in Greek academic libraries.

In Greece, disaster management within academic libraries seems to be dealt with inefficiently, if not completely neglected. The fearsome economic crisis is further degrading the level of disaster preparedness due to a number of side effects, including the lack of personnel and equipment maintenance activities, inadequate buildings and insufficient funding.

While the literature is flooded with risk and disaster preparedness approaches based on the work undertaken in most Western countries, this is the only study presenting evidence on the level of preparedness for Greek academic libraries.

This paper aims to highlight the damage suffered by the prominent libraries of Kashmir during September 2014 floods. The work provide an insight about the response and recovery measures being taken during and after the floods respectively in ten prominent libraries of Jammu & Kashmir [six Academic libraries (S.P. College Library, Women’s College Library, Govt. Degree College Library – Bemina, Amar Singh College Library, Gandhi Memorial College Library and College of Education Library); three Special libraries (J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages Library – Srinagar, Govt. Medical College Library – Srinagar and J&K High Court Library) and one Public library (Sri Pratap Singh library)].

A variety of data collection tools and techniques such as interview, questionnaire, observation, etc., were used to collect the data. The collected data have been tabulated and analyzed to derive meaningful conclusions and findings as per the set objectives of the study.

The results reveal that although libraries in Kashmir are prone to disasters like floods; yet, none of the library seems to be prepared to bear or cope such a disaster. The findings provide a gloomy picture of libraries when it comes to the measures being taken by these libraries during and after the floods to protect their resources. The paper highlights the inefficiency and incapability of libraries (in terms of disaster management) by finding that most of the libraries are without a disaster response and recovery plan as well as a disaster response and recovery team. The study recommends that some tangible measures if taken can save precious resources hosted in libraries.

The current study can help the stakeholders to chalk out scientific and systematic policy and plans for library and information centers that can be executed with minimum of fuss and anarchy.

The study offers working knowledge to library professional on ground for effective management of assets and resources in pre- and post-disaster scenario.

This paper examined the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on people, place, product and services in Jamaican academic libraries. It also compares the Jamaican academic library’s COVID-19 experience with US academic library’s COVID-19 preliminary experience.

The local academic libraries in higher education in Jamaica (also referred to in this paper as university libraries) were surveyed.

Government mandates, university mandates and the absence of a vaccine influenced academic library response. The measures implemented, though unplanned and developed on-the-go, constituted a behavioural change model (BCM). COVID-19 has had a positive-negative impact on library people, place, product and services and has created a new normal for Jamaican academic libraries.

This paper captures the preliminary response of Jamaican academic libraries to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on library people, place, product and services. As such, a follow-up survey on changes, challenges, strengths, impact, lessons and plans would be a useful complement to this paper. As COVID-19 information is rapidly evolving, this preliminary response of Jamaica is neither the final nor complete response to the pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a gap in the literature on disaster management generally and pandemic management in particular, and on the management of health disasters in academic libraries; this paper seeks to fill this gap, albeit incrementally, through Jamaica's preliminary response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper gives voice to the Caribbean academic library’s COVID-19 experience, through the voice of Jamaica. It is the first scholarly paper on the impact of COVID-19 on university libraries in the Jamaican / English-speaking Caribbean, and so presents the elements of the BCM implemented by Jamaica, which provides an important guide to Caribbean academic library leaders. The findings can also inform the Latin American and Caribbean section of international library papers on COVID-19 impact on academic libraries globally.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey sent to librarians and archivists in national and academic libraries in the Middle East and North Africa and the results of eight in-person interviews about the status and content of wartime disaster management plans in their institutions. Based on the research and analysis it presents, the paper concludes that the majority of the region’s libraries and archives either lack or have insufficient plans in place and stresses the need to establish and implement protocols for the protection and preservation of their priceless holdings. In addition to analysis the paper offers some recommendations for overcoming the impact of future disasters on the holdings of these libraries.

The research is based on survey and interviews that was done with librarians, archives, managers from the Middle East.

The paper presented the result of trying to find if libraries, and archives has disaster planning or no. Most of the libraries do not have a disaster plan and maybe do not even know what it means.

The research is covering some of the libraries in the Middle East and it was meant to be send to every library and archive but at least to the national libraries of each country in the Middle East.

Disaster planning is very needed to protect any people culture heritage and not having one in spite all the wars and damaged of libraries is something the author’s research addressed.

No one has written about this topic, and the author’s first paper was the scan of literature review of all what was written about disaster planning in a time of war. As a result of not finding anyone who wrote about that topic, the author decided to conduct the survey and the interview to find out if there is a plan or no. The author’s work is original and very important to help in preserving the world heritage in the Middle East.

Presents interim findings of a year‐long project examining disaster management policy and practices in British libraries and suggests areas which should be covered in a disaster training programme, having drawn on the experience of librarians, archivists, museum officers, heritage organizations, disaster salvage and recovery companies, commercial binders, fire service officers, loss adjusters and local authority insurers. Refers to the possibility of inter‐library co‐operation. Concludes that all libraries and information centres need to take practical measures to minimize the risk of disaster and be prepared to react quickly and effectively should a disaster occur. Disaster training is therefore an essential requirement of any disaster management programme.

Disaster management is an issue that has received relatively little attention in libraries, particularly in India. With the growth in digital resources in libraries, it is necessary for librarians to understand and apply the ways of protecting digital data and the related equipment from disaster. The purpose of this paper is to address the issues related to digital data protection in libraries in India. It aims to investigate the perceptions of librarians about the probability of digital disasters happening in their libraries, and to assess the level of digital disaster preparedness among libraries.

A questionnaire based survey of 276 libraries in the Western region of India was conducted to find out the digital data protection measures taken by them. The paper provides an overview and analysis of the general trends in digital data protection in these libraries.

The research results indicate that due to lack of knowledge about handling of digital data, and inadequate digital infrastructure setup in organizations, the chances of loss of digital data are high. However, common measures like taking backup of data manually are mostly followed by all libraries. The paper has identified the trends in protection of digital data, as well as the lacunae, in Indian libraries. Basic guidelines on digital data preservation are also presented in the paper.

The guidelines provided in the paper will be useful to any libraries to take measures for protection of the digital data. The libraries will be able to prepare their digital data protection plan and train the staff accordingly.

This paper is the first to address the issue of digital disaster management in libraries in India. It provides a detailed analysis of digital data protection measures taken by Indian libraries currently.

India is prone to natural disasters and disaster planning at the government level has gained momentum as new initiatives have been taken which are discussed briefly. But disaster planning in the university libraries in India remains a neglected area. This paper aims to address these issues.

This paper is a case study of two university libraries in Punjab state of India that faced the fury of floods during July 1993. Their experience with disaster, losses incurred and action taken in libraries is discussed. The paper concludes with a few suggestions. For collecting information, annual reports of universities were consulted and face to face interviews were carried out for data collection from the librarian and the deputy librarian of the two university libraries who had experienced the floods.

Among the two, one university library lost just over 70 per cent of its collection in flood. The other was fortunate and only minor loss was reported. Both the university libraries under study did not have a disaster plan then and neither have they now.

This is a case study of two university libraries only. A survey of all the university libraries in India would provide more information.

This paper looks into the neglected area of disaster planning in university libraries in India.

Presents the preliminary findings of a one‐year British Library Research and Development Department‐funded project looking at disaster management in British libraries. Based on visits to some 30 organizations within and outside the library profession and analysis of 62 library disaster control plans, considers the terms “disaster”, “disaster control planning” and “disaster management”, highlighting the central role of the written disaster control plan. Emphasizes the need for these plans to be managed and supported by risk assessments and regular inspections of buildings and equipment, the identification and use of reliable expert advice, staff training programmes and contingency planning for temporary services, accommodation and storage. Undertlines the importance of personnel issues such as the careful selection of those responsible for disaster management and staff counselling following a disaster, and also the need to investigate insurance cover and to consider the installation of fire detection and suppression systems.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the challenges affecting disaster training in federal and state university libraries in Southwest Nigeria with a view to finding ways of overcoming them.

Having adopted the descriptive research design, 14 university libraries (seven each of federal and state) were selected from the Southwest geo-political zone of Nigeria. The total enumeration sampling technique was employed. Questionnaire and interview methods were used for data collection. The three research questions that guided the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and ranking. Judgments were drawn using real limit of numbers and 2.50 as criterion mean.

Results emanated from the study showed that university libraries in the studied region are more equipped to fight fire disaster than any other emergency which is why fire drills and exercises are the prevailing disaster training received by library staff. It was also found that inadequate disaster facilities and equipment as well as poor funding were the greatest challenges confronting disaster training. The provision of adequate disaster facilities and equipment with the constitution of disaster prevention and response team was found as the most potent strategy for addressing the identified challenges.

The study lends strong empirical evidence for the underlining factors affecting disaster training in federal and state university libraries as well as academic libraries in general. The strategies for addressing the identified challenges are of more significance.