Emergency Preparedness for Library of Congress Collections
What is an Emergency? What is a Disaster?
If you look at the literature on disasters, it is mostly about libraries and archives. Why? Perhaps because events that involve water and paper or leather quickly become disasters, whether fire or other circumstances are present or not. Also libraries and archives have a larger number of organic materials stored in one square meter, so there is a large quantity of material that can be affected by one incident, whether it is a fire or water-damage, and each item must be individually handled, often in an extremely fragile condition, and handled rapidly. We define a disaster as an emergency which is out-of-control, so what we prepare for are emergencies and if our planning is successful we will not have disasters.
One of the major reasons for great concern when there are water-soaked organic materials is mold. Mold can cause extensive damage rapidly and it is extremely difficult to recover the material once it is weakened and stained. In libraries and archives when there is water-damage we are in a race against the clock because mold can begin to grow within 48 hours on wet materials. Once mold begins to grow the recovery operations become much more difficult for humans. The molds can be toxic to humans in themselves, and the chemicals used to kill mold equally so.
The response to an emergency where collections materials are wet must be rapid and effective. We have a brief window of time to make decisions - decisions about how to dry things, what to discard, and what to freeze. And there need to be enough people on hand who know how to make these decisions. And enough people to do the hard, but careful physical and manual labor of drying out and packing collections.
Introduction - What
is an Emergency? What is a Disaster? - How
to Begin - Risk Assessment - Communication
System - Training - Supplies - Other
Activities in Emergency Preparedness - Conclusions
Appendix 1 - Appendix 2 - Appendix
3 - Appendix 4 - Bibliography
of Suggested Readings on Emergency Planning