On Tuesday 5 September, Marieta van der Merwe of the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) will be providing an essential introduction to emergency readiness and disaster prevention strategies in the library, to strengthen the resilience of libraries against disaster.

Disastrous fires at the University of Cape Town Library and Parliament, floods in KwaZulu-Natal and the burning of libraries in recent years have confirmed that libraries cannot afford to only manage disasters. We, as custodians of our collections, must manage the prevention of disasters and maintain a vigilant state of readiness to mitigate the potential risk of disasters that might threaten the wellbeing of the collections in our care. Apart from the well-known risks of fire and water, we also must contend with pests, vandalism, theft, and for digital collections, bit rot, amongst other threats.

To maintain such a state of readiness we need to plan carefully for preparedness and response to disasters when it happens. Being prepared for a calamity is not just the purview of a library’s stacks or facilities manager! All staff in an information institution may have to play a role in preparing for and recovering from a disaster, whether it be natural or man-made. With this presentation Marieta will share practical experience in Emergency Readiness and Disaster Management at the National Library of South Africa.

Marieta van der Merwe is the systems librarian of the NLSA and is the coordinator and co-facilitator of the Emergency Readiness and Disaster Management (ERDM) workshops for libraries that is conducted by the Preservation and Conservation (PAC) Services of the NLSA.