A sprinkler line froze and burst in the upper level of Bass Library Friday evening, causing extensive water damage throughout the building. The two-story library underneath Cross Campus is closed for cleaning and repairs until further notice.
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On Jan. 30, after a broken sprinkler line flooded parts of Bass Library, Preservation Librarian Tara Kennedy (at left) and University Librarian Barbara Rockenbach sorted and scanned damaged books before shipping them offsite for drying and further evaluation. Source: Yale University Library News
The impact on the library’s collection was minimal, said Preservation Services Librarian Tara Kennedy, who was onsite Friday evening as part of Yale Library’s Collection Emergency Response. Kennedy and Barbara Rockenbach, the Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian, identified about 530 damp and soggy volumes, out of a collection of more than 65,000 titles. The affected materials have been shipped to offsite experts for drying and further evaluation. No rare or difficult-to-replace materials were affected.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
