1

INTRODUCTION

Los Alamos County Library System (LACLS), a small- to medium-sized library

system in northern New Mexico, serving 25,000 people, has experienced three

disasters since the year 2000, two wildfires and a flood. These disasters have been

classified as anthropogenic, as the climate in the southwestern United States has

become hotter and drier, more prone to extreme weather events, and less forgiving of

human error. They have been small-scale disasters when considered in the light of

wars, famine, and hurricanes; at the same, they have had a lasting impact on the

library, its staff, and its community. They continue to come up in conversations daily, as

if they had happened yesterday. The community’s awareness of its vulnerability and of

the chronology of disasters – from the shock of the event itself, to the unleashing of

forces that people are powerless to stop, to the stages of recovery, both physical and

emotional, to the realization that continuing preparedness is a necessity, is now an

accepted part of the LACLS environment.

Los Alamos, New Mexico, birthplace of the atomic bomb and home of Los

Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), known for nuclear weapons research – this in itself

sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, conjuring up images of mushroom clouds,

radiation leaks and explosions. But in fact, the disasters that have impacted LACLS

have all arisen from the fact that it is located in the tinder-dry Southwest. Los Alamos

County has two small population centers: the town of Los Alamos, with a population of

about 12,000; and the smaller bedroom community of White Rock, with a population of

about 6,000. LACLS, composed of a main library (Mesa Public Library) in Los Alamos

2

and the White Rock Branch Library, serves a total of 25,000 patrons, as about 7,000

workers per day commute to LANL from elsewhere in northern New Mexico. Both

people and nature played a role in the genesis of each of the three disasters. The two

wildfires affected the entire area, whereas the flood only affected Mesa Public Library.

All were intense experiences for library staff. The Cerro Grande Fire, as a result of

which over 400 families lost their homes, produced environmental devastation and

emotional trauma for residents, and placed library staff in an active listening role; staff

were suffering themselves while also trying to help patrons. The cloudburst that poured

through the library skylight in 2005 resulted in extensive water damage to the collection

and facility while sparing the patrons any trauma; and the Las Conchas Fire in 2011 did

not burn through the town, but it did demonstrate to staff and community how the library

could fulfill its role as an information center in a time of great need.

BACKGROUND

No two disasters are identical. There are differences in the degree of surprise;

sometimes there may be advance notice. Thanks to modern meteorology, there are

often warnings prior to the arrival of tornadoes and hurricanes, although their intensity

may not be as expected; the approach of wildfires is also often known in advance. Other

disasters, such as burst pipes and earthquakes, give no time for preparation. There are

differences in the magnitude of disasters, with pandemics encompassing entire

countries, and explosions demolishing perhaps only one building. To the people

affected, a disaster, whether large or small, has a lasting impact on their view of the

world and their place in it. To an affected library and its staff, disasters, even small-

3

scale ones, are not soon forgotten. Priorities are shifted, and the library’s view of its

place in its community is forever changed.

Literature that is specific to disasters and libraries tends to be practical in nature.

There are detailed monographs (Halsted, Clifton, and Wilson, 2014; Kahn, 2012)

containing complete guides and checklists for disaster preparedness, response, and

recovery; as well as numerous instructive journal articles on steps libraries can take to

write a disaster preparedness manual. Wilson and Yowell (2009), for example, have

written a very concise guide covering all the basic steps in creating such a manual. In

addition, there are websites specifically for libraries that contain many resources to help

in the creation of a disaster preparedness manual (Lib2Gov, 2013; Northeast Document

Conservation Center, 2006) Another focus of this literature consists of case studies,

with lessons learned following unexpected fires, floods, earthquakes, and storms,

explaining in detail how these occurrences affected a particular library. Articles on

these topics are very valuable, as they provide specific steps that should be followed

when disasters occur, and give the reader insights as to what the involved library staff

wishes they had known prior to needing to confront the immediate and long-term

aftereffects of the unfortunate events. These articles generally center on methods for

restoring the library facility and its collections. Although each disaster is unique,

common ground exists. Calzonetti and Fleischer (2011), whose library suffered flooding

from burst pipes, have written a clear, to-the-point guide to disaster preparation from a

library that already had an updated disaster preparedness manual in place that wasn’t

quite as helpful as they had hoped. Wall (2006), and Smith (2006) in a separate article,

both of whom have seen their libraries through Hurricane Katrina, pass along the

4

benefits of their wisdom to other libraries. Holderman (2012) poses a series of

questions libraries should ask themselves before a disaster occurs.

There is also a growing body of literature on how libraries can serve their

communities in the recovery process from disasters. Notwithstanding damage to

facilities and collections, public libraries are usually one of the first community services

to reopen following a crisis, and may find themselves fulfilling unexpected and

improvised roles according to community needs. Some of these needs are

informational; others are emotional. Library staff may take on roles they could not have

anticipated, both in individual interactions with affected patrons and in the greater

community. Cronin, Ryan, and Brier (2007) have written an article from a social work

point of view on the stress public service staff undergoes in disaster situations.

Brewster (2009) has put forth a theory of bibliotherapy that may help libraries in disaster

areas to provide needed information and solace through books for their patrons. Zach

and McKnight (2010) have produced an insightful article on how libraries can respond

as needed to new informational requests during disasters. Veil and Bishop (2013)

wrote a well-researched article on what public libraries can do to enhance community

resilience.

There are several books specific to the Cerro Grande Fire in Los Alamos. Foxx

(2010) has compiled a book of memories that contains the facts about the fire, but also

illustrates the emotions felt by the community at the time, and shows how one library

staff member in particular, who lost her house, was affected. Bryan (2003) has written a

book for children that traces the history of firefighting in the west, and includes the story,

with vivid photographs, of the Cerro Grande Fire. Grieggs (2001) has edited a definitive

5

and vivid sourcebook on the fire, compiled immediately afterwards. Ribe (2010) has

published a monograph that traces the origins of the fire from a prescribed burn to a

mismanaged inferno.

THE LOS ALAMOS STORY

The turn of the millennium seemed to portend disaster. As the year 2000

approached, many organizations, including libraries, worried about the ability of current

computer systems to handle the last two digits of the date change from 99 to 00. In a

move that seems almost comical now, Los Alamos County Library System prepared for

potential disaster by stocking up on rolls of plastic and using them to cover books and

equipment in the event that the sprinkler system would turn on at midnight, December

31, 1999. Nothing eventful happened, however, producing a false sense of security.

The library had no disaster preparedness manual, nor did the need seem evident.

Within five months, however, disaster struck.

Cerro Grande Fire

The Cerro Grande Fire was a disaster that shut down LANL and the towns of Los

Alamos and White Rock, completely upending the lives of the resident and workforce

communities. Residents were evacuated, and only firefighters, law enforcement

officers, and the National Guard populated the town. As inhabitants of a mountain

community in the Southwest, Los Alamos citizens were used to having smoke in the air

every summer from forest fires near and far, but as the years went by, they were more

and more unaware that the town itself could be in danger from a conflagration. On May

4, 2000, the United States National Park Service ignited a controlled burn in Bandelier

National Monument in the Jemez Mountains, west of Los Alamos, in an attempt to thin

6

an overgrown landscape. The resulting fire grew slowly at first, but by the next day,

unexpectedly gusty winds caused it to burn out of control, despite firefighting

reinforcements having arrived on the scene. Helicopters dropped water and fire-

retardant slurry on the fire, and firefighting crews worked on creating firebreaks.

However, the wind became ever stronger, blowing embers up to a mile ahead and

starting new fires in its path, leading closer and closer to the town. On May 10, when

unfavorable winds pushed the fire into the canyons surrounding the town, Los Alamos

was evacuated, starting with some especially vulnerable areas, and LANL was shut

down. Nearby communities responded immediately with many kindnesses, including

setting up shelters for evacuees. Quarantelli (2008) says, “There is a strong

assumption that since disasters by usual definition are something that is bad, the notion

that there can be positive or good aspects of such occasions tends to be ignored.” (p.

895). In demonstrations of the good that can come from a disaster, the altruism of

individuals was evident. When traffic moved slowly during the evacuation, residents

who were not part of the early phase brought coffee to drivers inching by their houses.

People from neighboring towns offered space in their homes to Los Alamos evacuees

they had never met before. New and lasting friendships took root at that time.

Materials in Mesa Public Library’s collection that were deemed irreplaceable

were packed up and taken to the branch library in White Rock, ten miles away. A

unique feature of Mesa Public Library is its large art gallery. Items from the art gallery,

which do not belong to the library but are the property of the exhibiting artist, were

moved to the home of a staff member who lived in a nearby town, and thus were kept

out of harm’s way. Within two more days, fire began to threaten the town of White Rock

7

which was also evacuated. All collection items that had been taken to the White Rock

branch stayed there, and fortunately, they stayed safe since the fire did not in the end

reach White Rock itself. The library’s online public access catalog is hosted on-site,

and backed up nightly; staff could have taken the back-up tapes out of the building, but

as it happened, they stayed safe in the library’s server room. The public Internet

stations resumed functioning once electricity was turned back on. Library staff Internet

access is managed by the Information Management Division of the county and were not

a worry for library staff.

Sadly, over 400 homes were destroyed before the fire was no longer a threat and

Los Alamos County could be reopened and repopulated. Los Alamos is built on finger

mesas separated by canyons, and houses closest to the canyons were the most

vulnerable to the flames. However, the fire was very capricious and sometimes left one

house on a block untouched while all the neighbors’ houses were destroyed; or

conversely, one house on a block was hit by a flying ember and thus was the only one

burned to the ground. Residents had not yet learned to take fire mitigation seriously,

and some houses that burned had trees growing right up to the edge of the house, and

vulnerable wooden roof tiles, providing an easy pathway for the fire.

In a small town, what happens to one family happens to everyone, and people

very much feel the pain of family and friends. The town was devastated physically and

emotionally. Even though the library facility itself did not suffer any damage, many of

the library’s patrons and some of the library staff had lost their homes. Many official and

humanitarian agencies were available to help, including the Federal Emergency

Management Association (FEMA), the Red Cross, and a County Joint Service Center.

8

FEMA erected a new trailer park on some vacant land so that displaced residents had

temporary homes. Although this trailer park served its purpose until people were able to

build, rent, or buy more permanent housing, it could not take the place of home. People

not unexpectedly looked to the library as a stable and comforting influence in their

turbulent lives. They appreciated that the library was physically unchanged amidst all

the surrounding chaos. They came for free Internet access, which is part of public

libraries’ basic service. For a time during the recovery period, this service included

reference staff helping patrons fill out online FEMA and insurance forms and job

applications, and reconnecting them with their distant family members. Patrons came

for meeting space, another everyday library service, valuable now as private space

where they could meet with counselors or government officials, or their displaced

neighbors. Immediately after the fire, FEMA officials could meet with those whose

homes were lost or badly damaged at the County Joint Service Center, but when that

closed after a few weeks, the library was there to help.

When the library opened for business once again, front line customer service

staff were called upon to serve patrons in some very special and intense situations:

finding information on approximate costs of lost valuables so people could file insurance

claims; producing housing floor plans for people who were considering rebuilding;

reassuring patrons that they did not owe the library money for books that had been

burned with their houses; and often just lending a listening ear to people who were

grieving the loss of their homes and neighborhoods, at the same time as staff might be

distressed over their own losses. Listening to people’s stories is something public

librarians do every day, crisis or not, and so it was natural for those who wanted to

9

share their story with someone to turn to library staff. Most public service staff

recognized the important role that was theirs to play and were able to provide some

comfort to patrons. In some cases, however, staff members themselves or close family

members had lost their own homes. Being available to others in the midst of their own

loss was especially difficult for these workers.

An example is this poignant story of a library staff member whose house was

destroyed by fire:

After the fire [she] worked at Mesa Public Library in the circulation department,

where she had constant contact with the public. People seemed to have a lot of

survivor guilt. But they were genuinely concerned, and many would graciously

ask how she was and how they could help. The continual gestures became

overwhelming, so [she] transferred to a position where she could have more

privacy. (Foxx, 2010, p. 51)

In another instance, a patron was dissatisfied when a staff member was short-

tempered. She told the manager she didn’t really want to complain because it occurred

to her that perhaps this staff member had lost her house in the fire. That wasn’t the

case, but in fact the staff member’s daughter, son-in-law, and two children had lost their

house, and had suddenly moved in with her, causing some stress, although not an

excuse for her lack of patience with patrons. So even for those whose homes were

spared, and who returned to their familiar houses, circumstances were changed. The

population of Los Alamos temporarily decreased as some families decided they did not

want to live in an area threatened by fire, and found jobs elsewhere. Thus, longtime

residents saw close friends move away from the community. Whole neighborhoods

10

didn’t look the same. The surrounding hills were covered with black sticks instead of

thick green forest, and the contours of the land stood out as on a relief map. Street

signs were gone, causing people a feeling of disorientation when going for a walk or a

drive in spaces that had been thoroughly familiar. Many people felt survivor guilt,

particularly when encountering a Red Cross trailer offering hot meals to everyone, and

realizing one’s own luck, along with horror at how others’ lives had been affected. To

this day, though the area population has rebounded, mostly via new LANL employees,

anxiety levels rise whenever the community smells smoky, from distant wildfires or

controlled burns, or even sometimes from neighborhood barbecues.

Public libraries must be flexible and ready to respond to changing community

needs at all times, but especially during times of great need, when books will seem to

be the least of the services the library offers. Yet, library books played a major role in

disaster recovery. The library’s reference collection sustained intense usage in the

search for values of burned items. Many explained how they did not know exactly what

they had lost; some told of how a video made as part of a child’s Boy Scout merit badge

project now became their only record of lost household possessions. Patrons came to

the library by the dozens to look at the library’s pamphlet file collection of housing floor

plans, as many wanted to rebuild their houses as soon as possible. Staff was constantly

hearing stories of patrons’ lives being turned upside down by the completely

unexpected, and although there was miraculously no loss of human life, by the loss of

home and of family heirlooms. One patron shared with library staff her very great

sadness at losing her house, but especially at losing an urn with her cremated mother’s

ashes that had been in her bedroom. Keeping their own spirits up under these

11

circumstances was challenging for all library staff, and professional counseling was

offered on how to handle so much grief. At the same time, people’s turning towards the

library for help reinforced staff’s sense of the very special place of the public library in its

community, and inspired staff to work even harder to help patrons cope with this crisis.

There is some controversy about whether or not librarians should engage in

bibliotherapy, defined as “The use of books selected on the basis of content in a

planned reading program designed to facilitate the recovery of patients suffering from

mental illness or emotional disturbance” (Reitz, 2014) Some librarians feel that

bibliotherapy should be left to professional counselors, reasoning that professionally

trained therapists have a greater likelihood of success in working with those who are

traumatized by disaster; while others feel that relevant reading suggestions are helpful

in that they reassure people that they are not alone in experiencing certain feeling of

sadness or anger, and show them how others have worked through these feelings,

paving the way to emotional recovery. Psychological help can also be obtained by

increasing one’s knowledge of the facts underlying disastrous occurrences. This type of

bibliotherapy is perhaps particularly relevant for Los Alamos, a town filled with scientists

and engineers, where understanding all the factors contributing to any event is highly

valued in terms of awareness and prevention, and where this consciousness helps

people work through their emotions. Displays and listings of relevant nonfiction and

fiction materials for all ages, as well as reading discussion groups led by library staff,

can help patrons work through their informational and emotional needs. In these

reading discussion groups, people can tell their stories about their experiences in the

disaster and feel heard and appreciated, as well as listening to other peoples’ stories.

12

By sharing their experiences, they can help and be helped, and feel that they are an

integral part of the community. In this way, the library is enhancing community

resilience and helping residents to help themselves in disaster recovery.

In the children’s area of the library, staff put up a display of nonfiction and fiction

books on forest fires which became very popular. For adults as well as children,

reading books that either give more information about the type of disaster the patron

has endured, or present a story about others who have experienced the same type of

disaster in their lives, is therapeutic and comforting. Foxx (2010), a Los Alamos

resident, compiled a book of fire victims’ reminiscences ten years later. In her volume,

descriptions of the fire and of people’s reactions to their drastically changed life

circumstances are very vivid, and though the feelings are still strong today, yet it is

evident how people managed to cope with shock and loss, and to renew their lives. A

book such as this one would be very helpful to anyone who has lived in a community

touched by fire. In Los Alamos, there is a continuing fascination with forest fires, and

patrons want to know all the facts on how wildfires get started, how to be as fire safe as

possible, and how fires are fought. Following the fire, the library took care to increase

its collection of books on fires and other disasters, and on emergency preparedness.

See Appendix A for a list of books on wildfires for youth, and Appendix B for a list of

books on wildfires for adults, including titles that are likely to provide relevant

informational and recreational reading for a community stricken by a forest fire. The

library collection areas of architecture, homebuilding, and landscaping were also

increased, and all these topics continue to thrive in terms of circulation.

13

Los Alamos still shows scars from the Cerro Grande Fire, but yet did not expect any

further disasters, and five years later, the library still had no disaster preparedness

manual. Although the need for a disaster preparedness manual did not seem to be a

lesson learned, yet there were other valuable takeaways from this experience:

● Los Alamos is a vulnerable community, and the fact that LANL employs many

highly intelligent research scientists and has a guard force to protect its location

from unauthorized personnel, this has no bearing upon natural disasters that

may occur. Every community is vulnerable to disasters.

● The library is highly valued in the community. It is seen as a warm and

welcoming place. Staff needs to pay attention to the physical amenities of the

library and provide quiet spaces in which patrons can reflect, as well as informal

areas where patrons can gather and chat.

● The library collection can be a source of strength for patrons. It is helpful to

feature factual materials on the types of disaster the community has

experienced, fictional accounts of disasters, and self-help books in library

displays, and to host discussion groups on some of these books.

● Customer service is more important than ever in times of distress. In order to

preserve the necessary equanimity of the staff, it is important to invite a social

worker or counselor to a library staff meeting to talk about how to deal with

community trauma and about a vocabulary staff can use with affected patrons,

and to answer any questions arising from these intense staff/patron interactions.

Cloudburst

14

Five years after the Cerro Grande Fire, the community was in recovery and

rebuilding mode and construction and restoration were ongoing all over town. The year

2005 was another drought year. The library had been experiencing a leaky roof during

snowmelt and occasional rainstorms for several years and the roof was finally being

repaired that August. In itself, this should have been a red flag for library staff, as “This

is the time when your institution’s collections and structures are most vulnerable to

damage.” (Kahn, p. 38) August is normally part of the southwest monsoon or rainy

season, but it had been an exceptionally dry summer. Clouds would sometimes gather,

but would dissipate before producing any moisture. All of a sudden, on August 4, just

after 5 p.m., with most key county workers and library staff having left for home but with

the contractors still at work, needed moisture arrived, but as is so often the case in the

southwest, in the form of a cloudburst. The roofers quickly threw a tarp over the roof

and ran for safety from the lightning. The tarp was not anchored and unfortunately

served as a funnel, allowing water to cascade into the library through its skylight, and

around the edges of the ceiling in the wing of the building that contained the skylight,

soaking and splashing $30,000 worth of the collection in a few moments’ time. Unlike in

the case of a wildfire, there was no warning at all, and staff had to make split-second

decisions.

Coincidentally, at the time there was nobody in charge of the library. The library

manager had left a few months before and had not been replaced. The County’s

Community Services Director was nominally responsible for the library, but had many

other duties and was seldom in the building. The flood mainly impacted the reference

area; thus the reference manager took charge and made the necessary decisions. As

15

Curzon (2006) says, “…it may be that the normal sequence of command is not possible

so anyone who is the next highest ranking must take up the reins. This is why it is so

important to train across the entire organization and why it is so important that everyone

knows the plan and has the ability to contact colleagues” (p. 19). In this case, no plan

and no training existed, but fortunately the stricken area of the library was served by

long-term staff with some presence of mind. They called the Fire Department, and

firefighters brought out the old Y2K rolls of plastic, covering shelves of books with

plastic sheeting to prevent even more damage, although by that time, the major part of

the storm was over and most of the damage had been done. Staff kept the library open

during the flooding, probably not a recommended path, but the decision was made in

the spirit of good customer service that the library would continue to serve patrons, and

staff were very proud of their service. In light of the fact that there was water

everywhere, including several inches of standing water on the floor, and therefore risk of

electric shock, this was not necessarily a wise decision, nor one that would be repeated

were the same event to recur, but in this instance, it worked out for the best. Again,

people came to the rescue. Patrons offered help, and one man went home and brought

back his wet/dry vacuum to suction up some water, demonstrating the kind of

community support that this library enjoys. Staff also called the local newspaper, which

helped to spread the word to the statewide library community. Offers to help from other

New Mexico librarians who had been through similar crises came in through state library

electronic mailing lists, and proved to be very helpful as recovery efforts began.

The fact that the library is a division of the Los Alamos county government was a

major advantage in dealing with this flood. County facilities crews were called in,

16

although it was evening and many had left work and had to return from their commutes.

They set up large fans to dry the air and the carpeting and prevent or delay the growth

of mold. They placed yellow caution tape across flooded areas, although staff

continued to enter those areas to retrieve books for patrons. The next day, county risk

management staff were invaluable in letting staff know what information was needed to

help them to prepare to file insurance claims. Besides the losses to the collection, the

library’s wooden shelf tops were damaged beyond repair and eventually had to be

refinished; as did the wooden planks on the ceiling. The carpeting, which had just been

replaced, was ruined as the glue had not yet had a chance to set when it was inundated

with water, and it needed to be replaced yet again, on two separate levels, as the water

pouring through the skylight had easy access to the Youth Services area on the ground

floor as well through an open area that connected both floors.

Risk Management quickly brought in a firm to remove water-damaged books and

transport them to their facility in Albuquerque, air drying them in a kiln, as by this time it

was too late for freeze-drying. However, the majority of these heavily water-damaged

books could not be saved, and staff continued to find water-damaged books throughout

the east wing of the library for some weeks. Water had traveled within the ceiling and

continued to drip through in several places in the stacks. Shelvers noticed swollen and

rippled books and brought them into the reference workroom for any repairs that could

be done. The insurance company required an itemized list of books that were

irretrievably damaged, including what it would cost to replace them. They agreed to pay

for some extra hours for a part-time staff member who also ran a used bookstore, was

familiar with the used book market, and could research replacement costs. Staff kept a

17

very detailed spreadsheet with all the relevant information, and the library’s non-fiction

collection development team made decisions on whether or not to replace books. The

library was ultimately able to replace a large proportion of water-damaged items, either

with the actual titles or with subject replacements. In some cases, this flooding provided

an opportunity for staff to update the library’s collection. The computer books were hard

hit by flooding, but were generally not the most recent editions anyway, and could thus

be replaced by brand new titles. Sometimes, staff replaced books where there was

community demand, even though professionally, they weren’t considered essential.

Books on unidentified flying objects, ghosts, and other mysteries of the unknown fell into

this category. One heavily used part of the reference collection consisted of the library’s

collection of old car manuals from the 1970s and 1980s. These were seriously

splashed, their pages rippled and stained. But they were considered irreplaceable by

patrons, who far preferred them to any electronic versions the library could provide, and

pointedly told staff not to discard them. Thus they still sit on the shelves nearly ten

years later, in poor condition, but seeing occasional usage.

The most irreplaceable parts of the collection – local history, first editions, and

unique items – are housed in locked glass display cases, which kept them safe from the

water. The area that suffered the worst collection losses, however, was the southwest

reference section, home to local Los Alamos county and New Mexico state documents,

as well as various reports from LANL. Again, a staff member devoted considerable time

to calling government agencies for replacements, which were usually sent to the library

free of charge and with all good wishes; and the library was able to rebuild the

documents section somewhat, although not to restore it to full strength. Some

18

documents that could not be replaced were rehabilitated and kept. There are no

published standards for when a book is considered damaged beyond use. This is a

judgment call, depending on how valuable the book is and the difficulty of replacing it.

The cleaning and restoration company the library employed stated that any books with

mold on them should be discarded for health reasons. However, other New Mexico

librarians who had suffered through water damage to their collections advised that

moldy books that were valuable and irreplaceable could be restored to usable condition,

and that is what staff chose to do in some cases. Kahn (2012, p. 89) has a set of

instructions for cleaning moldy books. With detailed documentation compiled by the

reference manager, insurance paid for books that were damaged beyond repair, as well

as extra staff hours spent in recovery efforts, plus carpet replacement and wood

replacement and refinishing.

The library’s southwest circulating collection is a repository of literature about the

area, containing local mysteries, Native American legends, wild west histories, and

dryland gardening tips, among other treasures. The collection was housed in a scenic

area of the library, under some large windows overlooking the Jemez Mountains. Rain

water traveled along the edges of the roof, and dripped down along the edges, soaking

part of this collection. During the recovery, it became obvious that the library should not

continue to shelve these precious materials under the windows, even though there were

comfortable chairs there for patrons to relax and browse the collection, and the scenery

was inspiring. This realization led a few years later to the creation of the Southwest

Room, a wonderful enhancement for the library built out of wooden bookshelves,

19

displaying art as well as books, and paid for by the Friends of Los Alamos County

Libraries.

There was one precious loss that staff didn’t notice immediately. In 1991, LACLS

had been given a gift of 1,000 origami paper cranes, folded by schoolchildren from

Albuquerque. The children’s goal was to build a peace statue in Los Alamos by 1995,

the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The idea of using folded paper

cranes to symbolize peace originated with a Japanese legend that if a person makes

1,000 paper cranes, her wish will come true. Sadako Sasaki was two years old when

Hiroshima was bombed. She died from leukemia ten years later. While she was

hospitalized, she began making paper cranes, hoping to overcome her illness. She

folded 644 cranes before she died; her friends folded the remaining 356, and she was

buried with the 1,000 cranes (Coerr, 1977). A peace statue was erected in Hiroshima

Peace Park in 1958, and another peace statue was built in New Mexico by the New

Mexico Kids Committee as a gift to Los Alamos in 1995, but the Los Alamos County

Council refused the offer to place it in Los Alamos, with sensitivities of World War II

veterans still running high. This Peace Statue is a touring statue and has been

displayed in New Mexico in both Albuquerque and Santa Fe (Estrada, 2012). Even

though the statue was not located in Los Alamos, the paper cranes donated by the

schoolchildren hung in Mesa Public Library, a politically neutral environment, draped

from the reference area on the main floor in the open area underneath the skylight,

reaching down into the Youth Services area below. These very symbolic paper cranes

got wet during the library’s flooding, and although they remained hanging in place for six

more months, they had developed mildew and eventually had to be taken down. They

20

have since been replaced by 1,000 new, brightly colored paper cranes, folded by

students at the Los Alamos Middle School and placed along tops of shelves in the

Youth area, to remind us of our connections to the world. Indeed, some of the most

important lessons learned from our cloudburst were lessons in connections.

Lessons learned:

● Although sometimes librarians chafe at bureaucracy, there is value in being part

of a larger organization. The county government, with about 600 employees,

provided willing expertise for the library on all the necessities of recovery:

facilities repair, restoration, insurance, public relations, and more.

● It is important to establish relationships with others in the organization before

disaster strikes, and to be familiar with whom to contact when in need.

Fortunately the reference manager was a seasoned employee who had

established these sorts of contacts with other county employees through the

years, especially in terms of helping them find information relevant to their

duties. These pre-existing relationships had established an atmosphere of

teamwork, cooperation and trust which facilitated easier conversations about

difficult subjects during the disaster recovery phase.

● Managers should not carry this burden alone, but should ask for help when

needed, and indeed should be sure to parcel out the work involved in recovery.

Staff at every level is very willing to help and will gain a sense of purpose and

benefit from a growth opportunity while coping with adversity and simultaneously

continuing to provide service to the community.

21

● Although often it seems that everything is happening at once, the person

managing the disaster recovery should prioritize steps and have staff work

deliberately and thoroughly, one step at a time. The emergency is over and

there is a new beginning taking place. Creative ideas are welcomed at this time.

● Library staff needs to assess the facility for potential weaknesses at least

annually, with an eye towards danger spots and with the realization that

disasters can happen to anyone. This is particularly true during improvement

projects. In particular, it is not a good idea to store valuable and hard to replace

items under a skylight.

● The library had successfully navigated two disasters in five years without a

disaster preparedness manual. Now was the time, with experience and the

certainty that disasters are inevitable, to write this manual.

Writing the Disaster Preparedness Manual

Work began in earnest on the disaster preparedness manual once the immediate

recovery period from the cloudburst was over. To begin, some library staff attended a

disaster preparedness workshop offered by Amigos, a nonprofit cooperative

organization that serves libraries primarily in the southwest. Professional literature as

well as some other libraries’ disaster preparedness manuals were consulted. It doesn’t

hold true that lighting never strikes twice in the same place; on the contrary, what has

happened before has an increased chance of happening again. Thus LACLS is

particularly vulnerable to wildfires and flooding. With this in mind, the whole staff

participated in creating the manual. Managers walked staff groups around the library

buildings, inside and outside, and asked them to spot potential disasters that could be

22

remedied while they were still small problems, such as plants growing too close to the

facility, which points to the need for a firebreak, or dampness from small water leaks,

which can grow slowly and suddenly produce deluges.

There is a need for a disaster preparedness and recovery team, composed of

supervisory and management level staff, to insure that the library is prepared for

disasters, will function as smoothly as possible during disasters, and will be able to

resume normal operations as soon as warranted afterwards. People should be selected

for this team based both on their job responsibilities and on where they live, as so much

depends on how quickly they can get to the library from their homes on short notice.

Each member of the team should be assigned specific responsibilities, such as staff

training, maintaining public Internet access, protecting the library collection, maintaining

circulation functions, protecting vital records, and disseminating public information. One

of the managers must take on the task of compiling the manual, and in this case it was

the reference manager, who had the most experience in managing disaster recovery.

The manual should begin with some general guidelines, such as the directive to

value human life over property. Contact information for the entire library staff, and for

other government officials who may be needed in case of emergency, such as the

utilities manager, the risk manager, and the emergency manager, is included in the

manual and should be kept updated at all times, a goal not easily achieved given the

frequency of staff turnover. The manual must list the location of all emergency systems

and equipment throughout the library system, from fire extinguishers, which must be

inspected annually, to water and electrical shutoffs, to emergency exits, to first aid kits

and master keys. Branch libraries each need their own sections in the manual with

23

specific locations of their emergency systems and equipment. Separate sections that

contain instructions on how to deal with the specific disasters that seem most likely to

happen in Los Alamos come next, these being bomb threats, fires, flooding, and

tornados. To help with decisions about saving the library’s collection, the collection

development team debated the relative importance or various collections and created a

written list of collection salvage priorities to include in the manual. The remainder of the

manual consists of disaster recovery resources, chiefly Preservation Leaflets from the

Northeast Document Conservation Center (Northeast Document Conservation Center,

2014); a list of outside organizations to aid in recovery; a bibliography for further

reading; and Emergency Response and Salvage Wheels from Heritage Preservation

(Heritage Preservation, 2011).

Special equipment that might be needed during disasters, such as flashlights,

maps, rubber boots, first aid kits, tools, extension cords, and antibacterial towelettes,

was purchased and placed in large rubber pails, one on each level of the library. These

pails were sealed with masking tape to prevent staff from removing supplies for

everyday use. The manual includes a list of this equipment.

In creating the manual, determining the scope of the section on specific disasters

proved to be a challenge, not so much in choosing the disasters that seemed likely in

Los Alamos, but in defining what constitutes a disaster. Considering the scope of

disasters that had already happened, certain events were unimaginable and therefore

beyond the manual’s scope. Pandemics and terrorist attacks are disasters, but they

were not included since response to these major catastrophes would be on a

government-wide level, and they are therefore included in the Los Alamos County

24

Continuity of Operations Plan, which the library would follow were these events to

happen. At the opposite extreme, not every deviation from normal is a disaster.

Management did not anticipate that with the recent focus on disaster preparation, staff

was beginning to see the potential for disaster in every unusual occurrence, and was

filled with anxiety. Yet, since such unusual events, which often require urgent action, do

not happen on a regular basis, they do require some special instructions. Therefore, it

became evident that the library needed two different manuals, a disaster preparedness

manual and a manual on dealing with everyday incidents. This everyday incidents

manual contains procedures for dealing with power outages, plumbing problems,

snowstorms, Code of Conduct violations, computer issues, vandalism, and problems

with security alarms. These are problems that need attention but are not catastrophic.

The everyday incidents manual gets much more frequent use than the disaster

preparedness manual, as its name suggests. A copy of the disaster preparedness

manual is kept in a red loose-leaf binder at every service desk, in managers’ offices,

and in managers’ cars or another secure place offsite at each manager’s discretion.

The everyday incidents manual is kept beside the disaster preparedness manual inside

the libraries in a blue binder.

Written instructions are helpful during tense moments, as they automatically

prioritize tasks for staff at a time when it may be difficult to think clearly. But repeated

training must accompany the written instructions, so that appropriate responses become

almost automatic during unusual occurrences. In this regard, the importance of staff

knowing the physical layout of the buildings they work in cannot be stressed enough.

Facilities training, including detailed instructions on how to operate the library’s security

25

system, the location of various alarms (motion detection, intrusion detection, fire) and

what the various sounds and lights signify, how to respond to them, and how to contact

the security company, the county facilities crew, and the police, are vitally important. At

a library such as LACLS, where staff is often shared between the main library and the

branch, keeping staff familiar with both facilities is an additional challenge. It is also

crucial to repeat this training at regular intervals, at least semi-annually, so staff will not

forget their training and so as to familiarize new staff with security procedures. At one

point, the alarms at Mesa Public Library were malfunctioning and were so sensitive that

they were sounding unnecessarily several times per week, and though this was

annoying, it was also the time the staff was most prepared, as they could not assume

the alarms were false, and they had to evacuate the building each time while the Fire

Department performed a check. Now that the alarms are responding normally, it has

become important to have regular drills, or any training becomes theoretical, and

emergency situations are anything but theoretical. Initial training was held, during which

staff was asked to provide input on anything they thought was missing from the

manuals. Refresher trainings were also held, but as time goes by and budget or staffing

issues take up most of management’s attention, it becomes an effort to keep refresher

training active on a regular basis rather than putting it on the back burner. Often while

conducting refresher training, managers will find out which sections of the manual need

to be updated, a task that should be done as part of an annual review, but also as

changes in procedures are noted.

The thought process when developing these two manuals and training staff was

that regular library workers would defer to a manager in the case of genuine disasters,

26

but would understand what constituted a disaster and would be able to handle everyday

incidents on their own. The everyday incidents manual was created so that regular staff

could cope with these situations, when they would normally have the time it takes to

look up the information and follow the relevant directions. However, intensive training

also produced knowledge of everything that could go wrong, and had a corollary effect

of causing staff to worry even more. Thus, staff did not have the confidence to make

even the smaller decisions that are required in unusual situations. Although

management assured them that they would be supported in their decisions, staff felt

overwhelmed by the responsibility and they were fearful of making the wrong decisions

and being blamed for it in their performance evaluations. While they were mistaken to

worry about not being supported in their decision-making in emergency situations, they

may have been correct in realizing that they did not have the level of training required to

deal with all possible eventualities. Halsted et al. (2014) state “Ensuring that whenever

your library is open it is staffed at all times by someone who has been trained to

respond to threats…Multiple staff members need to be identified as emergency

response coordinators in order to provide coverage for this important role during all

hours for which the library is open,” (p.18)

After a few extraordinary events on evenings and weekends that placed a high

level of stress on staff and led to written complaints from patrons, management decided

to institute a Person In Charge (PIC) program, with high-level paraprofessional staff

and/or librarians taking turns being on duty every evening and on weekends, whenever

the library is open outside of regular business hours. PICs understand that this is part

of their job responsibilities, and get additional training in how to handle emergencies, as

27

well as instructions not to hesitate to contact the library manager or other member of the

management team if they feel the need. PICs serve as a point of contact for the rest of

the staff on duty, and are responsible for facilities, customer service, and staffing issues

while on duty. They must be present in the building during their shift, in case any

unforeseen events should occur. Staff is notified at the beginning of each week of the

schedule of PICs for the coming week. Most of the time, PICs are called upon to

contact facilities crews for restrooms needing attention, to secure staffing if any

scheduled staff need to be absent at the last minute, to make sure weekend staff gets

lunch relief, and to speak to patrons who may be dissatisfied with a library service and

who want to speak to someone in charge. Being higher-level staff, PICs generally have

extensive experience and knowledge of the library, but one of their most important

qualities is grace under pressure and the ability to think clearly and calmly in a situation

that is unfamiliar to them so that they can solve problems. They are not expected to

make major decisions such as closing the library early, and must call the library

manager if they feel closing is indicated, as in the case of a severe snowstorm or a

lengthy power failure. The PIC system has worked reasonably well, and as PICs take

turns being on duty, is not unduly burdensome to anyone.

Las Conchas Fire

In 2011, a second wildfire was ignited by a tree falling on a power line in the

Jemez Mountains. The Las Conchas Fire started on June 26, a hot and windy Sunday.

It headed straight for Los Alamos, making quick progress along miles of dried out

vegetation. Like the Cerro Grande Fire 11 years before, the Las Conchas Fire was

quickly featured on national news media, as it burned very close to LANL, threatening

28

stored drums of nuclear waste. Experience served firefighters well this time, as they

had learned the likely path that wildfires take towards Los Alamos, and thus they knew

how to protect the residential parts of the town. But nobody wanted to take any

chances, and the town was evacuated. County employees were very protective of their

community. As the evacuation order for the town came, it was very moving to see the

bravery of Parks crews chopping down pine trees right outside the county ice rink,

creating a firebreak as the fire quickly approached. Public golf course employees

stayed behind to water the greens, fiercely trying to preserve the facility. Public aquatic

center employees were loath to abandon the swimming pool, as they wanted to

maintain the chlorine balance in the water. Firefighters risked their lives to save the

local ski area.

The library was now armed with a disaster preparedness manual, and the

approach of a wildfire could perhaps serve as a test of the manual’s effectiveness. The

disaster preparedness and recovery team was called in to work, and quickly packed up

the collection according to the salvage priorities in the manual. In doing so, it became

obvious to staff that it is not necessary to box up the whole collection. Just as residents

fleeing the town inevitably need to make choices about what they can rescue, at the

moment of necessity staff decided some collections could be replaced and energies

were best spent otherwise than in packing and moving items such as paperback fiction.

The disaster preparedness plan worked well as a guide, but unfortunately had not been

kept thoroughly updated, so that not all staff contact information was current. This

caused difficulties in letting staff know the status of the emergency and if and when they

should return to work. County employees’ email can be accessed from the Internet with

29

a password, so some communication could take place. Several staff members truly

wanted to help in any way they could, and offered to return to work during the time the

town was being prepared for repopulation. Others had been out of town and worried

that they couldn’t get back on short notice when the library reopened. Some had

questions about their paychecks. When it was announced that only essential personnel

among the staff should report, people worried about that term, as it had not clearly been

defined, and indeed, who is considered essential may vary with the type of disaster.

There was a county hotline, but it was not regularly updated, and this provided

another lesson for managers, in that if people cannot readily get official information,

they will rely on what they can find, the source of which may be rumors. Since that

time, Los Alamos County has established a Facebook page, and is capable of

transmitting information very quickly to anyone who is online. LACLS has its own

Facebook page, and wireless connections are increasingly available. But in 2011, most

employees relied on unofficial social networking pages, placed online by private

citizens, for any information they could find about the fire. Keeping employee contact

information current is problematic, as it often depends on the staff members themselves

letting their employer know about any changes in status. As is increasingly common,

some people had given up their telephone land lines and had come to rely on

cellphones for communications, both by voice and text; and some of these people

enjoyed the privacy provided by the fact that their cell phone numbers were unlisted.

Management made a concerted effort to update all contact information directly after the

fire, but again, its remaining current will depend on staff’s own commitment to updating

their personal information.

30

Although Los Alamos had been evacuated, and a Red Cross shelter had been

set up in a neighboring town, the fire did not in the end burn through the town. Still,

despite important collection items being packed up and removed from the library, some

local history documentation was lost. Sixty houses were burned on Cochiti Mesa,

southwest of Los Alamos, an area close to the start of the fire. One of the library’s

volunteers, who lived on Cochiti Mesa, had taken home the library’s historical

scrapbook for 2010 to work on, and lost her house with everything in it, including the

scrapbook. In theory, other volunteers would be able to partially reconstruct the

scrapbook by printing out stories of the library from microfilm of the local newspaper, but

this will take some effort, and has not yet been accomplished, though there is some

additional motivation to do so during this twentieth anniversary year of the library

building.

The building itself was safe, and during the evacuation period, after the fire had

passed Los Alamos, although it continued to threaten neighboring communities, both

library branches were able to help in the effort to get the community open and ready for

businesses and residents to resume their normal lives. During this initial phase of the

recovery period, only essential county employees were allowed back into town, and

these employees had to present their employee picture identification badges to the New

Mexico National Guard soldiers who were guarding the entrances to the town. As not

all essential employees had their badges with them when they evacuated, the White

Rock Branch Library opened as a badging center. This involved setting up computer

and photographic equipment and supplies on an emergency basis. At Mesa Public

Library, by previous agreement through a Memorandum of Understanding produced

31

after the Cerro Grande Fire, a County Recovery Operations Center took shape. Kahn

(2014) has an example of such an agreement (p.54). Having this agreement in place

allows the use of facilities and technology to be more easily shared between various

local and area organizations during crises, when communities must pull together in the

best interests of the stricken population. County information management staff quickly

set up phone banks in the library meeting rooms, and teams of library and county staff

from other departments answered phones and went to work making arrangements for

the hospital to reopen, the gas stations to be supplied with fuel, and the supermarkets to

accept food deliveries, before residents could be allowed back into town. Library staff

also emptied the outdoor book drops and unpacked and reshelved the collection. For a

time after residents returned, the town was very smoky and flames were visible on the

surrounding hills, an especially frightening scene at night; in addition, surrounding areas

remained under threat. But within ten days, the library was able to reopen and start

resuming normal services. Library staff was pleased and proud of the role they were

able to play in this quick recovery, and lessons learned centered around this essential

role.

Following the Las Conchas Fire, the New Mexico Environment Department set a

requirement for LANL to remove the 3,706 cubic meters of nuclear waste, which had

been in the fire’s path, to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico by

June 30, 2014. This deadline was recently missed as one of the waste drums from

LANL corroded and leaked while stored at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, contaminating

over 20 workers at a level that is not judged hazardous to human health, but that

32

reminded the world of the vulnerabilities of international society today to disasters that

would have been undreamed of in the first half of the twentieth century.

The main advantage in having the disaster preparedness plan lies in the fact of

acknowledging that dire possibilities may indeed occur in the library where one works,

and in having thought these situations through ahead of time. This takes some of the

element of shock away and allows staff to function according to a series of deliberate

steps, rather than to panic. Even though the fact that people tend to panic in disasters

is a myth (Quarantelli, 2008), and this was borne out by the library’s experiences in the

Cerro Grande Fire and the flooding five years later, having dealt with other disasters

and having had a chance to reflect on previous preparations, as well as organizing

one’s thoughts in order to produce a written document such as a manual, results in a

deeper understanding of the many natural and human factors involved in disasters and

a deliberate rather than a piecemeal approach to recovery therefrom. Another very

helpful idea is to develop a Service Continuity Pocket Response Plan (Halsted et al.

2014, p. 51) in addition to a disaster preparedness manual. This is a back-to-back two

page cheat sheet which is very portable, containing the essential information in a

disaster preparedness plan in a very concise and convenient format. Names and phone

numbers, floor plans, collection rescue priorities, and a communication plan are all

included on one piece of paper, which managers can easily carry with them. Wilson

also has a very important checklist (as cited in Halsted et al., 2014) of “15 elements

demonstrated by a library at a high state of readiness” (p. 105) that every library should

aspire to match.

Lessons learned:

33

● People learn and grow through experience. The library, the county, and the

community were much better equipped to handle this second fire. Residents had

practiced fire mitigation around their homes, and this contributed to the

firefighters’ success. A Red Cross worker was heard to remark that Los Alamos

is a fire savvy community, and residents know what to do.

● The library’s disaster preparedness plan was helpful, but staff must be more

conscientious about updating the information contained within it. The everyday

work of running the library should not relegate disaster preparedness to the

bottom of the task list. Staff must remain alert, as disasters often strike without

warning.

● Library staff has useful experience in customer service and in answering patrons’

questions, and can be very helpful in the effort to research and communicate

information as the community begins to recover. Staff can easily and naturally

serve at phone banks in helping businesses reopen and in allaying residents’

fears. A staff member should be designated to update the library’s social

networking presence from offsite.

● Library management should communicate with the area emergency manager in

advance in order to point out the many ways the library itself and its staff can be

of help in an emergency, whether it be staffing telephone information centers to

disseminate accurate and up-to-date news, providing space for meetings, or

researching needed information. Without the library taking the initiative,

emergency managers may not understand the expert help the library can

provide.

34

Fresh Disasters

“…there are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh

disasters.” (Johnson, 2004). As mentioned above, what has happened before in terms

of disasters has an increased chance of happening again. However, the opportunity for

fresh disasters is still present, and should be addressed in a disaster preparedness

manual. Los Alamos is prone to drought and surrounded by forested land; hence the

susceptibility to wildfires. These wildfires would seem to be perfectly natural

occurrences with few if any disastrous consequences if it weren’t for the fact that this

secluded, wooded mountainous area was chosen by the government as a place to

develop the atomic bomb and subsequently to situate a national laboratory, leading to a

sizable population of residents encroaching on the somewhat inhospitable landscape.

Los Alamos is also in the path of the North American summer monsoon; and hence the

threat of floods. Mountainous regions normally do not experience tornados; still, one

recent summer produced a tornado warning. Fortunately this danger passed without

the tornado actually materializing, while awakening library staff to a new potential

disaster. Librarians contacted the county emergency manager, who came to the library

and assessed the building for a safe zone where all inside could shelter in place. He

chose an area on the library’s ground floor which is normally reserved for toddlers and

parents to play, and he stressed the idea that all patrons inside the facility at the time

the tornado warning is broadcast should be kept inside and moved to that specific area,

rather than being asked to leave. Shelter in place instructions were quickly added to the

disaster preparedness manual.

35

At times, current events will heighten fears among staff that copycat disasters

may take place in the library. Suspicious packages are a case in point. After the

anthrax attacks in 2001, when anthrax powder was mailed to some news media and

United States senators and five people died, there was fear in the library mailroom.

Library management developed a set of instructions on dealing with suspicious

packages, and these were added to the everyday incidents manual. The United States

Federal Bureau of Investigation has a freely available poster for mailroom walls

available online (United States, 2010) with instructions on what the warning signs are on

a suspicious package, and what to do in the event one is delivered. During the school

year, staff quite often finds abandoned backpacks in the library. Routine procedure is to

leave them in place until closing time, and then check them for identification, calling the

young patrons to remind them to come and get their backpacks. After the Boston

Marathon bombing, where backpacks were used to transport bombs, staff began to

view the students’ backpacks with suspicion, and contacted the Los Alamos Police

Department. The police, however, indicated that they did not want to be called every

time a backpack was left in the library, and the sense of emergency gradually faded.

Recently, there have been concerns about the possibility of a live shooter in the library,

and this dire possibility has yet to be addressed and added to the disaster preparedness

manual. There is a video produced by the City of Houston that, while not library-

specific, has been recommended for viewing by concerned librarians (City of Houston,

2012). Police officers or the emergency manager should be invited to tour the library

and plan a live shooter training where he or she can point out where staff can retreat

and hide if such a disaster were to occur. There is no time to think when it happens.

36

Staff must be ready to react immediately in order to save their own lives. In any public

library, there are a number of mentally ill patrons. Mentally ill patrons may be difficult to

serve at times because of unusual behaviors such as talking to themselves. However,

“research indicates that people with mental illness are no more or less violent than the

general population” (Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies,

2010) and thus a live shooter is unlikely to come from a group of regular patrons.

CONCLUSION

In the 21st century, no institution can afford complacency when it comes to safety.

Although terrorist attacks and hurricanes seem unlikely to occur in a small town in the

southwest, climate change, producing raging wildfires and extreme weather events such

as droughts and cloudbursts, which can lead to disasters, are becoming more common.

The public library is a vital part of the community. It is a stable and welcoming place,

and citizens count on it for information, assistance, and emotional comfort every day.

This role is heightened when the community is under stress. This is one library’s story,

but it has universal application. Libraries and their staff members must be prepared

themselves so they can continue to fulfill their mission of being of service to others.

They must be ever alert and aware of their surroundings, and ready to act when

disaster strikes. They need a current disaster preparedness manual, regular training,

and a calm approach so that they can succeed in helping their libraries and their

communities to continue to thrive in the face of challenges.

REFERENCES

Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies (2010) People with

mental health issues: What you need to know. Library Accessibility Tip Sheet, 7

37

Retrieved from www.ala.org/ascla/sites/ala.org.ascla/files/content/asclaprotools/

accessibilitytipsheets/tipsheets/7-Mental_Illlness.pdf

Brewster, L. (2009) Reader development and mental wellbeing: The accidental

Bibliotherapist. Aplis, 22, 13-16.

Calzonetti, J.A., & Fleischer, V. (2011) Don’t count on luck, be prepared: Ten lessons

Learned from the “great flood” at the University of Akron’s Science and

Technology Library. College & Research Libraries News, 72, 82-85.

Coerr, E. (1977) Sadako and the thousand paper cranes. New York, NY: Putnam’s.

Cronin, M.S., Ryan, D.M., & Brier, D. (2007) Support for staff working in disaster

situations: A social work perspective. International Social Work, 50, 370-382.

Curzon, S.C. (2006) Coming back from major disaster: Month one. Public Library

Quarterly, 25, 17-29.

Estrada, M. (2012) Children’s Peace Statue finds a new home. Retrieved from

http://cpnn-world.org/cgi-bin/read/articlepage.cgi?ViewArticle=693

Foxx, T.S. (comp.) (2010) Touched by fire: Renewal of a landscape and a community.

Albuquerque, N.M.: GSI.

Grieggs, A.B. (ed.) (2001) Cerro Grande: Canyons of fire, spirit of community. Los

Alamos, N.M.: Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Halsted, D.D., Clifton, S.C., & Wilson, D.T. (2014) Library as safe haven: Disaster

planning, response, and recovery: A how-to-do-it manual for librarians. Chicago,

IL, American Library Association.

Heritage Preservation. (2011) Emergency response and salvage wheel. Washington,

D.C., Heritage Preservation.

38

Holderman, S. (2012) Be prepared: Writing a practical disaster manual. Library

Leadership & Management, 26, 1-6.

Johnson, B. (2004, December 2). Trust me, being sacked isn't all bad. Daily Telegraph

[London, England], p.27. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?

id=GALE%7CA125619937&v=2.1&u=albu78484

&it=r&p=STND&sw=w&asid=c99effbeee432fb53a0a4cf98d33e8afb

Kahn, M.B. (2012) Disaster response and planning for libraries. 3rd ed. Chicago, IL,

American Library Association.

Lib2Gov. (2013) Disaster / Emergency preparedness. General format. Retrieved

from http://lib2gov.org/tags/disasteremergency-preparedness

Northeast Document Conservation Center. (2006) dPlan: The online disaster-planning

tool for cultural and civic institutions. General format. Retrieved from

www.dplan.org

Northeast Document Conservation Center. (2014) NEDCC preservation leaflets.

General format. Retrieved from

https://www.nedcc.org/free-resources/preservation-leaflets/overview

Quarantelli, E.L. (2008) Conventional beliefs and counterintuitive realities. Social

Research, 75, 873-904.

Ready Houston. (2012) Run. Hide. Fight: Surviving an active shooter event – English

[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VcSwejU2D0

Reitz, J.M. (2014) Bibliotherapy. Online Dictionary for Library and Information

Science. Retrieved from

http://www.abc-clio.com/ODLIS/odlis_B.aspx#bibliotherapy

39

Smith, S.B. (2006) Observations of Ground Zero: From the outside. Public Library

Quarterly, 25: 151-157.

United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2010) If you receive a suspicious

letter or package: What should you do? General Information Bulletin, 2000-3,

rev. Retrieved from

www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/terrorism/suspicious-packages-pdf

Veil, S.R. & Bishop, B.W. (2013) Opportunities and challenges for public libraries to

enhance community resilience. Risk Analysis, 34, 721-734.

Wall, K.L. (2006) Lessons learned from Katrina: What really matters in a disaster.

Public Library Quarterly, 25, 189-198.

Wilson, D.T., & Yowell, S.S. (2009) Take ten: A ten-step approach to emergency

Preparedness and service continuity. Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 9,

139-146.

Zach, L., & McKnight, M. (2010) Innovative services improvised during disasters:

Evidence-based education modules to prepare students and practitioners for

shifts in community information needs. Journal of Education for Library and

Information Science, 51, 76-85.

Appendix A

Additional Reading for Youth Who Have Experienced Wildfires

Bryan, N. (2003) Los Alamos wildfires. Milwaukee, WI, World Almanac.

This book describes for children the events surrounding the Cerro Grande Fire

and the resulting debate over prescribed burning.

Carlisi, A. (2005) The forest and the fire. Los Alamos, N.M., Los Alamos Historical

40

Society.

Written in verse, with beautiful illustrations of plants and animals, this book is

about regeneration of the forest rather than about fire, and thus is a story of

hope.

Cooper, M.L. (2014) Fighting fire! Ten of the deadliest fires in American history and

how we fought them. New York, Holt.

Ten catastrophic fires, from colonial times to the 21st century, are described in

this volume, with authentic black and white photographs.

Demarest, C.L. (2003) Hotshots! New York, N.Y., Simon & Schuster.

Written in verse, with intense pastel illustrations, this book portrays the life of a

wildfire as well as the life of a hotshot.

Garretson, D. (2010) Wildfire run. New York, N.Y., HarperCollins.

This is an action adventure for middle-grade readers, about the President’s son

trapped with his friends in Camp David by a wildfire.

George, J.C. (2003) Fire Storm. [New York, N.Y.], HarperCollins.

As a family is rafting in the Salmon River, a wildfire explodes around them. This

is based on a true story, and is a good book for younger children.

Houser, S. (2007) Hot foot Teddy: The true story of Smokey Bear. Evansville, IN, MT

Publishing.

This is the inspiring story of the bear cub, injured in a New Mexico wildfire, who

became a symbol of protecting our forests from fire.

Morrison, T. (2006) Wildfire. New York, N.Y., Houghton Mifflin.

The author uses detailed explanations and original illustrations to explore

41

wildfires: their origins, how people fight them, and how they a natural part of the

western ecosystem.

Tieck, S. (2012) Smoke jumpers. Edina, MN, ABDO.

This book describes an action-packed career option, while educating children

about fighting wildfires.

Yahgulanaas, M.N. (2010) The little hummingbird. Vancouver, B.C., Greystone.

Based on a South American folktale, this book teaches that everyone, no matter

how small, can make a difference in recovery from forest fires.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Cerro Grande Fire: A large forest fire in northern New Mexico in May, 2000, that

destroyed over 400 homes in the town of Los Alamos.

Cloudburst: A large amount of rain dropped by a sudden, severe thunderstorm.

Flooding: A large amount of water in a place that is normally dry.

Las Conchas Fire: A huge forest fire in northern New Mexico in June, 2011, that

burned close to the town of Los Alamos.

42

Los Alamos County Library System: A small– to medium-sized library system in

northern New Mexico, serving 25,000 people.

Person In Charge: A higher-level library staff member who accepts responsibility for

the library facility, staffing, and customer service outside of regular business hours.

Preparedness: Readiness for whatever may happen, used especially in connection

with emergencies and disasters.

Recovery: The steps that are taken after disaster strikes to help get a community, its

residents and institutions back to normal.

Wildfire: A forest fire that moves very quickly.

Appendix B

Additional Reading for Adults Who Have Experienced Wildfires

Cotton, R. (2012) Wildfire. Thorndike, ME, Center Point.

In a fast-paced western, an Arizona Ranger pursues a gang of bank robbers

while a wildfire rages all around.

Desmond, M. (2007) On the fireline: living and dying with wildland firefighters.

Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press.

This is a sociological study of the lives and motivations of wildland firefighters,

43

by an academic who worked alongside them for several summers.

Egan, T. (2009) The Big burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the fire that saved America.

Boston, MA, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

This is a narrative non-fiction account of a huge wildfire in the mountains of

Washington, Idaho, and Montana in 1910 which led to the creation of the

United States Forest Service.

Kennedy, R.G. (2006) Wildfire and Americans: How to save lives, property, and your

tax dollars. New York, N.Y., Hill and Wang.

Beginning with the Cerro Grande Fire in Los Alamos, the author explains how

public policy has contributed to people’s suffering from wildfires, a natural

phenomenon.

Maclean, J.N. (2013) The Esperanza Fire: Arson, murder, and the agony of Engine

57. Berkeley, CA, Counterpoint.

Here is a true story by an award-winning wildland fire journalist about a California

fire that killed a five-man U.S. Forest Service Crew, and the resulting trail for

arson and murder.

Ribe, T. (2010) Inferno by committee: A natural and human history of the Cerro

Grande (Los Alamos) Fire; America’s worst prescribed fire disaster. Victoria,

B.C., Trafford.

This is a detailed account of the Cerro Grande fire combined with a call to the

government to revise forest fire policy and to the public to respect the natural

environment in which they live.

Roberts, N. (2011) Chasing fire. New York, NY, Putnam’s.

44

A female Missoula smokejumper loses her work partner in a fall, and must cope

with his death and the blame some others direct at her, all set against a

background of a raging fire season.

Soles, C. (2014) The Fire smart home handbook: Preparing for and surviving the

threat of wildfire. Guilford, CT, Globe Pequot.

This serves as a manual for how to guarantee the best outcome for one’s home,

property, and finances in case of a wildfire.

Stuever, M. (2009) The Forester’s log: Musings from the woods. Albuquerque, N.M.,

University of New Mexico.

A collection of 25 years’ worth of syndicated columns by a female forester in the

mountain southwest, who has participated in firefighting, fire rehabilitation, and

forest planning.

Wuerthner, G. (ed.) (2006) Wildfire: A century of failed forest policy. Sausalito, CA,

Foundation for Deep Ecology.

Another tome on the ultimate role humans should have on natural landscapes,

this volume is distinguished by its outstanding photographs.

45