Disaster management in libraries: an overview

Disaster plan and management is indispensable for the efficient functioning of libraries. Library and information centres are vulnerable to the wide range of disasters. This paper highlights various disasters and natural calamities that can befall upon libraries. The disasters pose threat to library buildings, collections, equipment and systems. Library and information centres have to play a vital role in preserving their collections and paraphernalia. Therefore meticulous disaster planning is inevitable for mitigating the hazardous effect of disasters on libraries. The paper also discusses how to plan, prepare, respond and recover from disasters.