Disaster preservation in libraries

University of Mysore

Department of Library and information science

Seminar on : “Disaster Prevention in Libraries”

Presented To: Umesh sir.

Presented By : Shanthakumara,T.N.

INTRODUCTION

“Handle a book as a Bee does a Flower”The library and information centers world over have experienced a sea change in the methods of acquiring, processing, storing and making that information available to the end users especially after a revolution in the information and communication technologies.

According to “WHO”:“Disaster is any occurrence that causes damage, destruction, ecological disruption, loss of human life, human suffering, deterioration of health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected community or area”.

What is Disaster?

A disaster is a sudden, unexpected event that seriously disrupts the functioning of a community or society and causes human, material, and economic or environmental losses that exceed the community’s or society’s ability to cope using its own resources. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins

Dictionary of Library and Information Services Defines:

The Dictionary for Library and Information Service defines a “disaster Prevention” is a set of written procedures prepared by the library staff in advance to deal with an unexpected occurrence that has the potential to cause damage to library collections and services.

Disaster Prevention in library and information centers:

Disaster management plan is a must be incorporated in initial planning of establishing a library and information centre.

The disaster and its control mechanism normally go through three stages – Before, During, After.

Before

During

After

All these three stages are kept in mind while planning to minimize the impact and recover out of potential emergencies. Each disaster plan must cover whole of the library and information centre including staff,readers, sources of information, equipmentand infrastructure and it must be a teameffort.

Types of Disaster

“Natural Disasters”• Rain and wind storms• Floods• Earthquakes• Volcanic eruptions

“Man-Made Disasters”

• Acts of war and terrorism• Fires• Water• Explosions• Liquid chemical spills• Building deficiencies (structure, design,

environment, maintenance)• Power failures

Water Disaster

Earthquake Disaster

Ruined Books

Stages in Disaster Prevention

Prevention Identify and minimize the risks posed by the

building, its equipment and fittings, and the natural hazards of the area.

Carry out a building inspection and alter factors which constitute a potential hazard.

Establish routine housekeeping and maintenance measures to withstand disaster in buildings and surrounding areas.

Install automatic fire detection and extinguishing systems, and water-sensing alarms.

Take special precautions during unusual periods of increased risk, such as building renovation.

Make special arrangements to ensure the safety of library or archival material when exhibited.

Provide security copies of vital records such as collection inventories, and store these off-site.

Response

When disaster strikes.• Follow established emergency procedures for raising the alarm, evacuating personnel and making the disaster site safe• Contact the leader of the disaster response team to

direct and brief the trained salvage personnel• When permission is given to re-enter the site, make a

preliminary assessment of the extent of the damage, and the equipment, supplies and services

required.• Stabilize the environment to prevent the growth of

mould.

Recovery

• Establish a program to restore both the disaster site and the damaged materials to a stable and usable condition.• Determine priorities for restoration work and seek

the advice of a conservator as to the best methods and options, and obtain cost estimates.• Develop a phased conservation program where

large quantities of material are involved.

• Discard items not worth retaining, and replace or re-bind items not justifying special conservation treatment.

• Contact insurers.• Clean and rehabilitate the disaster site.• Replace treated material in the refurbished

site.• Analyze the disaster and improve the plan in

the light of experience.

How to Prevent it?

• Good House keeping.• Good Monitoring (smoke, heat and

water) and fire suppression systems• Regularly scheduled inspections like fire

suppression systems fire safety equipment etc.

• Review of facilities structure/design

Conclusion Thus, finally we comes to a decision how

to protect our libraries from this types of disasters we have. And we were know what is a disaster and how to prevent it, and also know how to response if it is happen. And I would like to thank all of you………….