The Silver Lining: Coping with Theft, Vandalism, Deterioration, and Bad Press
The Silver Lining Amidst the Shambles of Disaster
Camila A. Alire
Dean, University Libraries, Colorado State University, Fort Collins

On the evening of July 27, 1997, Morgan Library at Colorado State University suffered a major disaster where one-half of its building collection was water damaged. Earlier that evening, the city of Fort Collins received flash-flood warnings. In a period of four hours, the city received 6.5 inches of rain.

The water level within the Library's lower level rose 8.5 feet, covering the ceiling tiles by 6 inches. Some 658 cubic feet of water were in the Library, equaling 4.9 million gallons, or 41 million pounds. All the bound journals housed in the Library were damaged and packed-out, as were all the monographs housed in the lower level. Many subject disciplines had no materials available.

Anyone immediately involved in some type of major crisis or disaster does not even begin to think about whether or not there might be some silver lining. That is the last thing on one's mind.

That was definitely the case for Morgan Library. People found themselves overwhelmed by emergency disaster recovery, by needing to design innovative systems to recover damaged materials, and by needing to create novel, emergency programs to serve library users during the disaster recovery period. Be assured that there was no silver lining at the beginning.

The focus of this presentation is not on publicized failures. It focuses on the unexpected, but positive, outcomes of a major library disaster. Morgan Library staff have been able to take a major disaster and find the silver lining. This silver living has some all-encompassing characteristics. That is, the Morgan Library experience is a model response to a major disaster. Staff were able, in many instances, to convert the cards dealt them into positive strategies and results.

The various facets of the silver lining in the Morgan Library disaster covered in this presentation involve public relations, public services, technical services, collections, personnel, and special projects. Much can be learned just from the silver lining in this disaster recovery process.