Several hundred gallons of water streamed into the basement of the Perkins Library at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, after a hot-water pipe burst above a women’s bathroom early in the morning of October 3. After workers shut off the water, a disaster-response team spent two days removing materials from the flooded area.
Library Communications Director Ilene Nelson told American Libraries that the damage was primarily limited to the offices of the South Asian studies and Slavic bibliographers. “We were very fortunate,” she said. “In the South Asian studies office there were about 5,000 political pamphlets in boxes that got wet, and those were immediately sent off to Fort Worth to be freeze-dried.” Six staff members will be displaced for about three weeks as ceilings and carpets in those offices are repaired.
Fortunately, the library’s disaster-response team had attended a workshop in the summer where they rehearsed salvaging water-soaked materials.
Posted October 9, 2000.