Following is an announcement of a new resource made available by the Library of Congress.  In addition to listening to the stories, check out the links on the left side of the Preservation pages for a wealth of resources for libraries preparing for or responding to disasters.  

“For the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, in commemoration and in light of the current hurricane season, the Library of Congress announces a Web site titled “Learning from Katrina,” which provides insights for better responses to record and artifact damage by hurricanes.

On this site, www.loc.gov/preserv/emergprep/katrinarespond.html, visitors can hear seven interviews with professional conservators who helped salvage collections affected in August 2005.In the interviews, responders discuss the lessons learned, their motivations, expectations and preparations, and their experiences. The interviews were conducted in 2006 at the Library of Congress by the Preservation Directorate, in collaboration with the Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) and the American Folklife Center.”

The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) has its own CERT!  However, theirs is a Collections Emergency Response Team, rather than a Community ERT.  See the AIC-CERT web page for a description of their mission and capabilities.  They are the “Rapid Response Team for Cultural Institutions,” and they specialize in helping out small organizations where there is not enough manpower or expertise to deal with damage to collections.  They have a 24/7 phone number:  (202) 661-8068.  On the website, there is also a brochure in PDF that you can download and print.  Federal funding has provided AIC-CERT assistance to libraries and other cultural institutions in the Midwest this year after the flooding, and now in Texas after Hurricane Ike.

Many thanks to Holly Herro, Conservation Librarian, NIH/NLM, History of Medicine Division, and one of the conservators trained as part of the AIC-CERT project, for the heads-up about this very valuable and relevant resource.  She encourages any Network members, whose collections were damaged by the hurricane and who need help, to call the phone number listed above to reach AIC-CERT.

Heritage Emergency National Task Force, the folks who brought us the “Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel” and lots of other helpful advice and information, has a new page up on their site called Current Disaster Information , which gathers together many resources aimed specifically at dealing with damage from hurricanes and other powerful weather events and natural disasters.  The page also has a section where cultural institutions can submit damage reports and request assistance, along with the capability to view reports/requests already submitted.  Also, look for the free, downloadable “Guide to Navigating FEMA and SBA Disaster Aid for Cultural Institutions,” a little farther down the page.  This is a rich site, and deserves a close look at the many resources they have provided.  Thanks, Heritage Emergency TF!

Do you know about NVOAD?  It’s a coalition, the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.  Their website lists a broad range of organizations, faith-based and otherwise, who provide disaster relief and many support services all over the world.  You can find contact information and links to the web pages for each organization.  Check your state’s listings to see whether there’s a group you can contact as a resource, or maybe you would like to volunteer to help out in your area.  There are also valuable resources listed from their Member Tools link and their Links link.  The more networking we can do, the better off we’ll all be in recovering from a disaster.

The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) has many very helpful resources available to help rescue paper-based collections.  (Their own disaster plan template, dPlan, is featured on their pages.)  What I found especially pertinent, however, were the many preservation leaflets–there’s a “Click to view Preservation Leaflets” link in the left menu bar on every page.  The leaflets deal with every situation imaginable and are well-written and succinct.  NEDCC also offers a 24/7 “hotline” number to call with salvage questions.  I’m adding them to our blog’s list of sources for future reference!

The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) has many very helpful resources available to help rescue paper-based collections.  (Their own disaster plan template, dPlan, is featured on their pages.)  What I found especially pertinent, however, were the many preservation leaflets–there’s a “Click to view Preservation Leaflets” link in the left menu bar on every page.  The leaflets deal with every situation imaginable and are well-written and succinct.  NEDCC also offers a 24/7 “hotline” number to call with salvage questions.  I’m adding them to our blog’s list of sources for future reference!

Drying a wet book is not as simple as we might think! At the ANCHASL meeting last Friday, Walter Cybulski showed a fascinating presentation on how to deal with water-damaged materials. Many of the procedures he outlined are contained in this page from Washington University in St. Louis, which gives detailed directions and contains some very helpful pictures of how to interleave paper towels in a wet book properly and how not to do it.

Dan and I attended the ANCHASL (Association of North Carolina Health and Science Libraries) meeting in Raleigh on Friday, June 15 (click here to see the program).  The meeting was held in the beautiful Andrews Conference Center at the Wake Area Health Education Center.  Robert James (Duke University) is the president of ANCHASL this year, and had organized the meeting, which was well attended by both academic and hospital librarians.  In addition to the North Carolina members, a hospital librarian from Lowell, Massachusetts attended, as well as Beth Wescott from NN/LM.  The program for the day included a short business meeting for the organization, but otherwise focused on raising awareness about disaster preparedness and educating attendees about writing disaster plans, developing contingency plans for maintaining services, and salvaging collections.  The meeting featured informative and entertaining speakers on several different aspects of disaster preparedness and emergency response.  The information presented engendered some very productive discussion and questions.  Here’s a list of the speakers:

• Mark Schell, Durham County Emergency Management, on working with first responders and emergency managers 
• Robert James, Duke University Medical Center Library, on writing a library disaster plan.  As part of his presentation, Robert outlined use of the Heritage Preservation’s Disaster Wheel, and distributed copies of the wheel to all participants.  He also referred to the Field Guide published last summer by Heritage Preservation.
• Walter Cybulski, NLM, on salvaging water damaged collections
• Angie Santiago, of the  Contingency Planning Association of the Carolinas, on service continuity planning for medical libraries
• Dan Wilson, chair for the SE/A RML Emergency Preparedness Task Force, on how the RML can provide support to health sciences libraries in emergency

Click here for a nice update on the recovery efforts at the Georgetown Public Library in the District of Columbia.

Below is an excerpt from an article in the Georgetown Voice on the recovery status of the library.

Fortunately for historians, the Peabody room escaped the disaster mostly unscathed. Dorsey said that 95 percent of the collection was saved. According to a library press release, library employees, as well as contractors from a document-preservation company called Belfor Property Restoration, were able to re-enter the building early on Tuesday and began loading water-sogged records into refrigerated trailers to prevent mold from setting in.

Though no timetable has yet been set, Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office estimates reconstruction will cost between $15 and $20 million. In the meantime, local residents will still be able to get their reading fix. According to the library release, “A bookmobile is being readied to serve the Georgetown community while efforts get underway to establish a temporary library.”