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NEDCC Disaster Assistance on the Road: Wet Collections Recovery Workshops in Louisiana

November 2005

“What if everything is covered with mold?” This was the most common question asked by librarians and archivists at two recent disaster recovery workshops in Louisiana. Responding to an urgent request from librarians at Louisiana State University, the workshops were organized by the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) has also received permission from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to reprogram funds from an existing grant to support hurricane recovery activities. At the invitation of SOLINET, NEDCC’s Field Service Representative, Aimée Primeaux, presented the workshops in Shreveport and Lafayette, Louisiana on October 6 and 11, 2005.

Workshop participants came from university libraries, public libraries, archives, small Catholic schools, and even the Shreveport police department. Because the sessions were free and open to the public, private citizens also attended to obtain information about salvaging their family photographs. The primary concerns of attendees were mold and disaster preparedness for the future. Some librarians who had not yet been able to access their facilities expected to find a major mold outbreak upon their return. For others, even those whose collections had not been immersed, mold was a problem because of high humidity coupled with power outages. Some had water damage “from above and below,” resulting from a leaking roof and flooding.

Those attending the workshops represented their institutions, but nearly all of them had personal concerns as well. Some of their homes had been flooded or damaged; many of their families had been dispersed. A New Orleans librarian who had evacuated to Dallas asked questions about mold at her library, followed by a question about what she could do to salvage the flood-damaged Barbie’s Dreamhouse that she had carefully preserved since childhood. One librarian had salvaged a collection of historic pamphlets from his library by freezing them with interleavings of waxed paper. He was there to ask, “Now what do I do?”

Ms. Primeaux outlined the stages of disaster recovery for wet collections. The use of personal safety gear was stressed, including the proper use of respirators and protective clothing. Salvage procedures were described, starting with sorting and triage, packing out, dehumidification, air-drying, and freezing methods. Recovery methods for specific materials were explained, including books and paper, photographs, documents, magnetic media, and other materials. A list of suppliers was provided. Heritage Preservation provided Emergency Response and Salvage Wheels for each person, an invaluable quick-reference resource. (Salvage wheels are available at the Heritage Preservation Web site.)

All participants were eager to move quickly to create a disaster plan so that they would be more prepared in the event of another hurricane or other disaster. Of the 49 individuals who participated in the workshops, only two had disaster plans in place before Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, and neither of those had been recently updated. With an up-to-date, written disaster plan including pre-disaster procedure checklists and salvage priorities, institutions have a much better chance of efficient recovery of collections. Aimée Primeaux presented a brief overview of NEDCC’s dPlan: The Online Disaster Planning Tool, a user-friendly, fill-in-the-blank online disaster planning tool that should be ready for dissemination in 2006.

The participants took copious notes and asked a lot of questions. Many asked for extra handouts to share with their colleagues. Everyone returned to their institutions armed with information on safety issues, stabilization of collections, and establishing salvage priorities.