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Burst Pipe Douses University of Iowa LibraryA ceiling pipe that supplies water to the University of Iowa's Library heating and air conditioning system rusted through and sprayed pressurized water for an hour and a half into the basement space of the special collections department July 1. Special Collections Librarian Dick Kolbet told American Libraries there was no warning that the pipe was in such poor condition. "It just decided to blow and we were cascaded with water," he said. The conservation and preservation staff quickly implemented the in-place disaster plan, covering the collection with plastic. They were not able to salvage 10 years of the student newspaper The Daily Iowan, which they also have on microfilm. About 450 more volumes were damaged, mostly late 19th- and early 20th-century periodicals that Kolbet called not extremely rare or valuable but historically important. About 250 were sent out to be freeze-dried; the remainder were being salvaged in the library using fans and dehumidifiers. Posted July 13, 1998. |
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