Monday, June 16, 2008

Mike Lee and the Facilities folks who are based out of the Main Library checked our basement.  There is about 1/2 – 2 inches in various parts of the basement, including the Special Collections and books stack areas.  No collections are wet and do not appear to be in danger of getting wet.  The utilities are still on, which will be a big help.  We are working to see that the area is checked regularly and to see how soon we might be able to begin getting that water out of there.  Turned out that just what it was. We only got 2″ in the basement.

The University of Iowa is on the Iowa River. It came up slow, giving us a lot of time to prepare. It, too, exceeded all previous records but did not get as high as projected. Our Art and Music Libraries are on the 2nd floor of flooded buildings. We’re very concerned that we’ll have lots of mold. We think we’ll be ok with the collection in Main Library.

In the morning I met with the African American museum staff at their temporary office and suggested that they coordinate recovery efforts with the Czech Slovak museum. They, too, thought this would be a good idea. They, also, have found temporary storage for their dry items.  We then headed out to join the Czech Slovak museum staff who has arranged a meeting with the disaster response company. It’s a good meeting. We’re hoping to get into the disaster area tomorrow. The Brucemore director is anxious to assist with recovery efforts. I stopped to talk to him on my way home. He plans on acquiring preservation supplies and has office space if needed.