Disaster planning in university libraries in India: a neglected area

India is prone to natural disasters and disaster planning at the government level has gained momentum as new initiatives have been taken which are discussed briefly. But disaster planning in the university libraries in India remains a neglected area. This paper aims to address these issues.

This paper is a case study of two university libraries in Punjab state of India that faced the fury of floods during July 1993. Their experience with disaster, losses incurred and action taken in libraries is discussed. The paper concludes with a few suggestions. For collecting information, annual reports of universities were consulted and face to face interviews were carried out for data collection from the librarian and the deputy librarian of the two university libraries who had experienced the floods.

Among the two, one university library lost just over 70 per cent of its collection in flood. The other was fortunate and only minor loss was reported. Both the university libraries under study did not have a disaster plan then and neither have they now.

This is a case study of two university libraries only. A survey of all the university libraries in India would provide more information.

This paper looks into the neglected area of disaster planning in university libraries in India.