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Disaster Preparedness for Libraries

This guide is designed to help libraries, librarians, and library administration create a fire safe library and minimize damage in the case of an emergency.

This page contains videos from libraries, museums, conservators, vendors, and others about preparing for a library disaster and recovering from it. Many of these videos focus on salvage and material repair. For recorded webinars and workshops, see the page Webinars and Workshops.

American Institute for Conservation Videos

This video will get you started on creating a disaster plan and introduces the FAIC Field Guide to Emergency Response.

This webinar from the AIC and the FAIC discusses how to salvage photo and electronic media after a disaster.

This playlist from the American Institute for Conservation & the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation YouTube channel includes videos by them as well as by the Smithsonian Institution and the Getty Museum, all of which cover disaster preparedness and recovery.

Learning From Other Libraries

This video is from the Syracuse University Libraries' preservation department. It demonstrates book repair basics.

This video is from the Syracuse University Libraries' preservation department and discusses recovery of wet books. 

This video from the Syracuse University Libraries' preservation department discusses drying and salvaging water damaged books.

This video is from the UNCG Special Collections and University Archives' YouTube channel. It discusses how to create an emergency kit for the library.

Learning From Other Libraries

This video is from Southeast Regional Library in Saskatchewan, Canada.

This video is from the Cleveland Public Library and covers replacing a book cover.

This video is from the UNCG Special Collections and University Archives' YouTube channel. It shows you budget-friendly methods of repairing a book spine.

This video is from the UNCG Special Collections and University Archives' YouTube channel. It covers cleaning books and paper documents.

Other Videos

This playlist of videos from library vendor Demco covers book repair, which you may need to perform following a disaster.

This playlist from Preservation Australia contains videos that cover salvaging all manner of water damaged materials, from books to photographs and more.