I hope never to see this in a library where I work – and so do you…<\/p>\n
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Heavy storms hit Perth tonight<\/a>, with over 47mm falling during the storm – after around 120 days with only 0.2mm during one day . Twitter user Muzafar Tufail<\/a> posted this image of the damage to the University of Western Australia Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts Library , Library at ALVA UWA<\/a>.<\/p>\n We drove home in a hailstorm and Mr7’s bedroom was flooded after our gutters overflowed – but at least we did not have golfball sized hailstones or apocalyptic\u00a0 noise like in Drew Robinson’s office in Nedlands<\/a>, just down the road from UWA.<\/p>\n Seeing the photo reminded me of Michelle McLean’s experience in Victoria in November with a library flooding experience<\/a> and then one week on<\/a> .\u00a0 The flooding experience lasted just 10 minutes and involved librarians pushing the wheeled shelves away from the area of damage. (Note to self: I thought we were getting wheeled shelves in our new library for the flexibility they offered the space, but can see another compelling reason now.)<\/p>\n I know that Greg Schwartz and his staff at the Louisville Free Public Library<\/a> worked to the point of exhaustion recovering from the flood in May last year that did over $5 million worth of damage<\/a> to over 500 000 volumes and three bookmobiles.\u00a0 I had not looked at a photo of the outside of the library during the flood before , but really,really never want to see this happen to any library:<\/p>\n Credit: http:\/\/www.atyourlibrary.org\/whats-wednesdays-library-flooding<\/p><\/div>\n \n I’ve been jolted into including a bigger section about disaster recovery in the digital strategy I’m currently writing for our library.\u00a0 If you are in a similar situation, I would recommend the Australian Library and Information Association’s\u00a0 17 page Guide to disaster planning, response and recovery for libraries<\/a> that was prepared in November 2009 after the Victorian Bushfires<\/a> .<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.atyourlibrary.org\/sites\/default\/files\/sites\/files\/default\/images\/cedarrapidslibraryflood.jpg\")
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