Flood Recovery

Index

Updates

Recovery Stats

Return Rates

Book Recovery

OPAC Status

Causes & Prevention

Flood Photos

Articles

Update 1

Update 2

Update 3

Third Update on Flood Damage and Recovery to Green, Meyer, Braun, and Cubberley Libraries 27 March 1998 Green Library East We will reopen the Lower Level of Green Library for public access to the Lower Level Stacks on Tuesday, March 31st. At that time, all reconstruction and cleaning of the physical facility will have been completed. The bottom shelves will be back in place and library materials which were checked out at the time of the flood, and have subsequently been returned, will be reshelved. During the Spring and Summer quarters, books from the Lower Level which went to the freezer on February 3rd and are subsequently returned from the drying process, will also be reshelved. Carpet installation on the Lower Level will begin during the Spring Break week and continue into the beginning days of the quarter. The installation schedule is being planned to have minimum negative impact on public access to library materials. During April, all books and shelves on the Lower Level will be thoroughly cleaned. Again, this process has been planned so that small distributed teams of cleaning people will be working in such a way that readers and staff can still get to library materials. We anticipate that the faculty studies, dissertation studies, and a number of the public reader areas on the Lower Level can be reoccupied by early May. New permanent furniture will be in the studies by that time and temporary furnishings will be installed in the reader areas, with delivery of new furniture for those spaces expected in the late Summer. Current Periodicals/Microtexts reopened on March 9th. It has been determined that the compact shelving which holds microforms in that area needs to be replaced due to damage to its mechanical operating systems. Microform materials are being removed from the compact shelving to the South Mezzanine where they will be easily accessible to users during the demolition and reinstallation of the compact shelving. Jonsson Library of Government Documents The Jonsson Library of Government Documents will reopen for public access on Tuesday, March 31st. Full reference services as well as access to the government document stacks will be available to readers. As Jonsson materials are returned from the freezer and drying process during the Spring and Summer, they will be reshelved. The entire Jonsson area (also known to some readers as the South Stack) will be carpeted, and this work will be completed, as in the Green East Lower Level, during Spring Break and the early weeks of Spring Quarter. The online catalog now displays FLOOD-ITEM for those library materials from the bottom shelves on the Lower Level of Green and in Government Documents which are assumed to be in the flood recovery process. This allows both readers and staff to know immediately that those materials are not on the shelf, and to move to alternate means of acquiring them through Inter-Library Borrowing, other local libraries, etc. As the books are returned from the freeze-drying process, catalog records will be changed to reflect the updated status for each item (e.g., on the shelf again and ready to circulate; at the bindery; or on order for materials which need to be replaced.) The first batch of test freeze-dried materials has been returned to the library for evaluation. While the books clearly show marks from the water, they are largely in good shape structurally for return to active use. A successful return rate of 95-98% is anticipated, although some books may need repair or rebinding before they can be returned to the collection. Replacement of the 2-5% of materials which were damaged too severely for return to the collection will be sought through both current and out-of-print book dealers. Books will begin returning from the drying process at the rate of about 8,000 volumes per week in mid-April and this will continue through late June when all of the estimated 70,000 wet volumes will have been cycled through the process. Braun Music Library and the Archive of Recorded Sound The Music Library reopened for public access on March 9th. Carpet installation there will be completed during the Spring Break week and readers should find both the library and graduate carrel spaces back to normal when they return for Spring Quarter on March 31st. Michael A. Keller University Librarian; Director of Academic Information Resources; Publisher of HighWire Press Stanford University