What Damage do Earthquakes cause to Libraries and Archives?
Earthquakes may cause total structural collapse leading to the death of staff and researchers or destroyed, damaged or buried collections items. Structural collapse may cause fires due to broken gas lines, as well as water damage to collections from broken pipes, and sewer, fuel, and power lines. Even if the repository building largely survives intact, earthquakes may toss collections items from shelving; bury collections items under furniture or rubble; damage roofs and walls leaving collection items exposed to the elements; or drown repository collections in mudslides, flooding, or under refuse from the landscape (i.e., downed trees or parts of nearby buildings). Earthquakes also may cause libraries and archives a major loss of original order for archival and special collections and a loss of shelf order and potential damage to descriptive systems if the systems are not backed-up appropriately. Repository staff need to know what their risk level is from earthquakes and plan appropria
