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New Review of Academic Librarianship

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Academic Libraries – Changing the Approach:Resilience Building against Disruptive Eventsand the Contribution to Disaster Risk ReductionFrameworks

Johanna Garnett

To cite this article: Johanna Garnett (2019): Academic Libraries – Changing the Approach:Resilience Building against Disruptive Events and the Contribution to Disaster Risk ReductionFrameworks, New Review of Academic Librarianship, DOI: 10.1080/13614533.2019.1703767

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2019.1703767

Accepted author version posted online: 12Dec 2019.Published online: 24 Dec 2019.

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Academic Libraries – Changing the Approach:Resilience Building against Disruptive Events and theContribution to Disaster Risk Reduction Frameworks

Johanna Garnett

Torrens Resilience Institute, Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia

ABSTRACTAcademic libraries have been subjected to disruptive eventsthroughout history. Academic literature primarily provides casestudy examples of incidents, guidance on developing an emer-gency management plan or advice on recovering or restoringitems, particularly related to Special Collections, which requirespecific handling expertise. Increasingly, however, academiclibraries may require a changed approach to traditional riskmanagement thinking, increasing consideration towards resili-ence-building measures. In addition, many academic libraries areunaware of how efforts to protect items of cultural or historicalsignificance held in Special Collections, are contributing to inter-national frameworks in disaster risk reduction. This paper willreview findings from a literature review, providing examples ofdisruptive events within academic libraries, and consider howacademic libraries may build resilience against disruptive eventsin order to contribute to international efforts to protect culturalheritage within international disaster risk reduction frameworks.

KEYWORDSUniversity libraries;collection management;leadership; management;library staff development

Introduction

Protection of tangible cultural heritage items held in Special Collections byacademic libraries from disruptive events, and the connection to internationaldisaster risk reduction policies is rarely discussed within academic literature.Academic libraries can be unaware that resilience-building activities undertakencan contribute to international frameworks in disaster risk reduction relatingto cultural heritage protection, and that resilience building measures require amove beyond a traditional risk assessment or emergency management plan.

Terminology

The planning and management of a disruptive event is called emergencymanagement. However, it is acknowledged that the more commonly used

� Johanna GarnettPublished with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

CONTACT Johanna Garnett johannavalentine@hotmail.com Torrens Resilience Institute, FlindersUniversity, Adelaide 5001, Australia.

NEW REVIEW OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIPhttps://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2019.1703767

word for a disruptive event is ‘disaster’ within literature, although thispaper will adopt the term ‘disruptive event’, as the preferred terminology.In academia, disruptive events are viewed as a consequence of inappro-

priately managed risk – a product of hazards and vulnerability (Quarantelli,1998). In addition, hazards1 are not described as ‘man-made’ or ‘natural’ aswithin the emergency management sector no disruptive event is natural.The term is effectively a misnomer - the hazard may be natural, but thedisruptive event is a result of the combination of natural hazards and socialand human vulnerability (O’Keefe, Westgate, & Wisner, 1976).

Objectives

This paper will review a range of literature, providing examples of disrup-tive events affecting academic libraries, establishing the connection to inter-national risk reduction frameworks and discussing emerging considerationto resilience building for academic libraries.

Scope

Out of scope for this review is emergency management in relation to muse-ums, art galleries or physical sites of historical importance connected touniversities, nor does it include personal or private libraries held by aca-demics, or university archives.

Method

Ethics approval was not required for this paper. To achieve the narrativeliterature review, two stages were identified - Stage 1: Defining SearchTerms and Stage 2: Search of Academic and Grey Literature.The Stage One search strategy utilised individual and combined key

word searches such as “university libraries”, “academic libraries”, “universitylibrarians”, “special collections”, “disaster”, “historical”, “universitymanagement”, “resilience”, “disruptive events”, “disaster management”,“preparedness”, “cultural heritage”, “emergency management”, “disaster plans”,“emergency guidelines”, “emergency manual”, “archival recovery”, “recovery”,“response”, “policy”, “emergency procedure” and “emotional intelligence”.

1Hazard, as defined by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR, 2017) is a process,phenomenon or human activity that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage,social and economic disruption or environmental degradation. Hazards may be natural, anthropogenic orsocionatural in origin. Natural hazards are predominantly associated with natural processes and phenomena.Anthropogenic hazards, or human-induced hazards, are induced entirely or predominantly by human activitiesand choices. This term does not include the occurrence or risk of armed conflicts and other situations of socialinstability or tension, which are subject to international humanitarian law and national legislation. Severalhazards are socionatural, in that they are associated with a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors,including environmental degradation and climate change.

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Stage Two involved a search of academic and grey literature. Academic lit-erature searches included journals from emergency management and/or alibrary management perspective for example, the Australian Journal ofEmergency Management, International Journal of Risk Assessment andManagement, the Journal of Academic Librarianship, International Federationof Library Associations (IFLA) Journal and Library Management. Grey litera-ture searches were conducted through Google# search engine and relevantopen access databases via third party organisations. Document searches fromrelevant organisations, such as the International Federation of the UnitedNations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), UnitedNations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Getty ConservationInstitute (GCI), International Centre for the Study of the Preservation andRestoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), International Committee of theBlue Shield (ICBS), International Council on Archives (ICA), InternationalCouncil on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), International Council ofMuseums (ICOM), the International Federation of Library Associations(IFLA) and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) web-sites, were also undertaken.The literature search revealed 147 papers for consideration, with 85 final-

ised for inclusion after an initial review, subsequently categorised into thefollowing framework; Disruption which examines specific disruptive eventsoccurring within academic libraries; Contribution discussing Disaster RiskReduction Frameworks and links to cultural preservation and Considerationswhich ruminates on emerging considerations academic library leaders wish-ing to build resilience to disruptive events, may wish to consider.

Literature review

Academic libraries, also referred to as university libraries, are attached to ahigher education institution, supporting the curriculum, researchers andstudents, typically managed by a University Librarian or Director.Protectors of cultural history, libraries have been subjected to both delib-

erate and non-deliberate disruptive events. Historically, research into emer-gency management2 for academic libraries has focussed on case studies ofdisruptive event experiences (Corrigan, 2008; Grant, 2000; Maylone, 1980;

2Disaster or emergency management as defined by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction(UNDRR, 2017) is the organisation, planning and application of measures preparing for, responding to andrecovering from disasters. Annotation: Disaster management may not completely avert or eliminate the threats;it focuses on creating and implementing preparedness and other plans to decrease the impact of disasters and“build back better”. Failure to create and apply a plan could lead to damage to life, assets and lost revenue.Emergency management is also used, sometimes interchangeably, with the term disaster management,particularly in the context of biological and technological hazards and for health emergencies. While there is alarge degree of overlap, an emergency can also relate to hazardous events that do not result in the seriousdisruption of the functioning of a community or society.

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Newman & Harris, 2015; Saunders, 1993); guidance for developing anemergency management plan (Allain & Vallas, 2014; Yasue, 2012) or adviceon restoration and recovery of items held which require specific handlingexpertise when damaged (Cullingford, 2016, pp. 25–47).

Disruption

Around the globe, academic libraries are frequently subjected to disruptiveevents of varying significance, because of either accidental or deliberateactions or natural hazards.

Accidental/deliberate actionsConflict provides examples of losses around the globe. During World WarII over 200,000 books were destroyed at the National University of TsingHua in Peking (van der Hoeven & van Albada, 1996) and in the RomanianRevolution in 1989, the Central University library in Bucharest wasdestroyed followed by the University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovinaduring the siege of Sarajevo (Tomljanovich & Ze�co, 1996; Hasenay &Krtalic, 2010). Most recently, in 2014, the world witnessed the destructionof the academic library at the University of Mosul by the Islamic State ofIraq and Syria (ISIS) in which 8,000 books and 10,000 manuscripts weredestroyed or looted for selling on the black market (MacDiarmid, 2017;Jadallah, 2017).Public disorder and protests have also resulted in losses. Universities in

particular can be subject to protesters, demonstrated at the Fisher Libraryat the University of Sydney in 2016 when student protesters stormed thelibrary at a presentation given by the Australian Federal EducationMinister. Riot police ultimately responded and subsequently damage to themain library entrance occurred (Burke, 2016). The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Howard College law library in 2016 was damaged as part ofwider unrest on three UKZN campuses, started by protesting studentsregarding an increase in university fees. The library, whilst not entirelydestroyed, was severely damaged by fire (Govender, 2019).Threats also include theft, illustrated in the 1980’s and 1990’s by the fam-

ous case of James Shinn and Stephen Blumberg who collectively stole rarebooks worth over $5 million USD (Falciani, 2017; Basbanes, 1999; Higgins,2015; Mounce & Mounce, 2012). In 2005, the University of Adelaide inSouth Australia, suffered a major flood because of construction works. Thedamage was so severe, it almost closed the University for three days withthe possibility of closing the campus for an entire semester, with projectedlosses of $90 million (Beaumont, 2008).

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In addition, fire has impacted academic libraries demonstrated by inci-dents involving the Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences inMoscow in 2015 (The Guardian, 2015), and in Canada and Scotland, at theDalhousie University Law Library in 1985 and the University of EdinburghArtificial Intelligence Library in 2002. In 2018, Hale University suffered amajor fire started by building works and is likely to take a number of yearsbefore being fully functional (“Hale Library Recovery Plan, Kansas StateUniversity”, 2018).

Natural hazardsAcademic libraries affected by natural hazards are numerous. HurricanesKatrina, Ivan, and Rita provide well documented case studies includingDillard University Library, Loyola University Library, McNeese StateUniversity Library, Mississippi State University Library, SouthernUniversity Library, University of Southern Mississippi Library, XavierUniversity Library and Tulane University Library (Bryant, 2006; Corrigan,2008; Harris & Newman, 2015; Jumonville, 2007). In 2019, OaklandUniversity Library was flooded due to a Polar Vortex causing fire suppres-sion lines to freeze and burst in the early hours of the morning. The libraryclosed for several days (“Pipe burst floods Oakland University library inRochester”, 2019). In Australia, the Australian National University lost over112,000 books and tens of thousands of other items were destroyed ordamaged, representing 5 to 8% of the university’s holdings (“Chifley flooddonation appeal - ANU Library - ANU”, 2018) in 2018, and in the sameyear, the University of Tasmania suffered damaged due to severe storms(Howarth, 2018).Earthquakes have affected collections, as reported by the University of

Tokyo, Imperial University Library in 1923, in which 700,000 volumeswere lost due to subsequent fires as a consequence of an earthquake (vander Hoeven & van Albada, 1996); California State University library in1994 suffered severe structural damage (“20th Anniversary of theNorthridge Earthquake, Oviatt Library, 2014; Finley, 1999) and StamfordUniversity suffered major damage to the now named Green Library in1989, with damage to the building taking almost a decade to repair(Vorwerck, 2013). The University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in 2005,suffered heavy damage to the library building because of a 7.6 magnitudequake (Shaheen, 2008). The 2004 Boxing Day tsunami destroyed theMadras University Library and the Aceh Documentation and InformationCentre, known for its collection of rare books and manuscripts (Revolvy,2018; Eberhard, 2005).Within Australia, a Cooperative Action by Victorian Academic Libraries

(CAVAL, 2003) survey recorded incidents over a 6-year period (1997–2003)

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including flooding of a Rare Book room; bushfires destroying libraries orcausing power failure across multiple library sites; a sewage spill; fire andflooding caused by workers and multiple examples of storm damage.However, despite examples from around the globe, there is scant research

investigating emergency management planning in academic libraries, theknowledge held by university librarians regarding emergency managementplanning and little regarding resilience building for academic librariesagainst disruptive events.A 2012 study in South Eastern Nigeria, found 51.2% of university librar-

ians surveyed had low levels of disaster management knowledge (Echezona,Ugwu, & Ozioko, 2012), whilst a similar study in North-East Nigeria sur-veyed 21 university library leaders, with 71.4% not sensitised to disasterpreparedness (Abareh, 2014). In West Africa, one study discovered onlyone library had a disaster preparedness plan (Akussah & Fosu, 2001, pp.1–16). Another West African study received feedback from thirty academiclibrary directors, concluding that there are no serious disaster preparednessplans, not enough basic maintenance is conducted, and little staff trainingis carried out (Aziagba & Edet, 2008).In Europe, studies of 22 Greek academic libraries showed 90% had no

disaster management plan, (Kostagiolas, Araka, Theodovou, & Bokos,2011), with Kahn (2012) finding 75% of academic library respondents to a1992 Amigos Library Services (USA) survey, had no disaster plan, despite25% having experienced a disruptive event in that year alone. Australianresearchers (Garnett, Arbon, Howard, & Ingham, 2018) concluded 90% ofthe University Librarians surveyed in Australia had experienced a disrup-tive event of some magnitude, at some point in their career, but most feltthat the chances of a disruptive event happening were low. Of those sur-veyed, 90% had no emergency management plan for Special Collections,providing evidence of disconnect between experience of disruptive eventsand future expectations.Within the literature, commonalities emerge regarding barriers to emer-

gency management planning. These include time or budget constraints; thebelief that insurance cover would pay out on historical or valuable items;that statistically a disaster is unlikely to happen or they believed they didnot hold historical items of significance (Cuthbert & Doig, 1994, p. 13).However, there has been a move away from reactive emergency manage-

ment measures to proactive actions within libraries across the globe. Thisincludes a growing awareness that university librarians are vital in preserv-ing the ‘collective memory’, and need to argue the case for emergencymanagement planning, even if decisions of the universities’ administrations,which, under political and inner university pressures, often neglect theneeds of libraries (Kostagiolas et al., 2011). Emergency management should

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be treated as a key area of library management as ‘disaster managementplans should be developed alongside main service continuity plans’ (Bansal,2015, p. 12).

Contribution

Although collections are increasingly digitised, academic libraries continueto hold vast amounts of tangible, original works which provide researchmaterial for scholars, often classified as Special Collections. SpecialCollections generally consist of material that is fragile, old, rare or uniquedeemed to have historical, cultural or significant research value for futuregenerations (Cullingford, 2016, pp. 25–47; Seal, 2012).Special Collections are often located separately from mainstream library

collections, often with restricted access and requiring special managementincluding regulation of environmental factors for example, temperature,humidity and light levels that are controlled and monitored.In Australia alone, academic libraries hold in excess of five hundred sep-

arately grouped Special Collections, each group containing hundreds orthousands of individual pieces of historical and culturally significant items,making an invaluable contribution to collective state, national and globalheritage (Cass, 2013). This notion of academic libraries acting as‘repositories of cultural heritage’ is also evident in the literature (Bansal,2015, p. 10; Ugwuanyi & Ezema, 2015, p. 2).Internationally within disaster risk reduction, the importance of protect-

ing cultural heritage from disruptive events and the role cultural heritageplays in resilience building is becoming increasingly significant, although inAustralia only rudimentary links are currently made to disaster risk reduc-tion policy and practice at both national, state and local levels.The leading international document in disaster risk reduction is the

United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030.This voluntary, non-binding document outlines a 15-year framework andassociated actions for reducing disaster risk across a broad spectrum of sec-tors, recognising that States have the primary role in reducing risk, alongwith relevant public and private stakeholders (United Nations, 2015a,pp. 18–20).Unlike the previous Hyogo Framework for Action 2005–2015 (“Hyogo

Framework for Action 2005–2015”, 2005) the protection of cultural heritageand promotion of cultural resilience of people, communities and countries,is given higher priority within Sendai Framework, via Priority 3: Investingin Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience 30 (d). It states the protection, orsupport of the protection, for cultural and collecting institutions, and sitesof historical, cultural heritage and religious interest, is important.

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Another organisation with a significant role in protecting culturalheritage is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and CulturalOrganisation (UNESCO), the lead agency in matters of cultural heritageglobally. In Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment (United Nations, 2015b) Target 11.4 encourages the inclusionof strengthened efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural andnatural heritage within developmental plans.In addition, the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation

and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) has a worldwide mandateto promote the conservation of all types of cultural heritage and theInternational Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) promote the protectionof cultural property against disruptive events. Established in 1996, ICBS isa collaborative partnership between four international expert bodies(International Council on Archives (ICA), International Council onMonuments and Sites (ICOMOS), International Council of Museums(ICOM) and the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA).Library specific organisations include IFLA, the leading international body

representing the interests of library and information services and users. Thegoal of the IFLA Preservation and Conservation Core Activity (PAC) is to‘ensure that library and archive materials, published and unpublished, in allformats will be preserved in accessible form for as long as possible’ (IFLA,1993). IFLA have 16 centres globally who are part of the PAC network andwhose aim is to provide global expertise on preservation matters. The IFLApolicy statement supports the UN 2030 Agenda via target 11.4 (UnitedNations, 2015b) and in the IFLA strategic plan for 2016 – 2021 (IFLA,2015), IFLA’s Key Initiative 3.3 is entitled Safeguarding documentary culturalheritage through Disaster Risk Reduction. Part of this initiative is the creationof the Cultural Heritage Programme Advisory Committee, and the develop-ment of a Risk Register in conjunction with ICBS and UNESCO, to docu-ment library collections at risk or potential risk from crises, conflict ordisaster (Libraries safeguarding cultural heritage, 2017).Posing the question ‘the library has responsibilities to its clientele

(whether to preserve national heritage or to assist users) and if the libraryis prevented from doing this, is it because of something which the librarycould have prevented or at least limited?’ Cuthbert and Doig (1994) suggestthat a failure to plan for disruptive events is a failure of the library to pro-tect the collections. McCracken (1995, p. 3) comments that each library dis-aster that occurs serves to remind us of the importance of planning andwhen items ‘within a rare book collection … are lost, the institution hasfailed in a significant portion of its primary goal’.It is evident from the literature that academic libraries are affected by

disruptive events with frequency perhaps not fully realised and that the

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protection of Special Collections particularly, is contributing to aspirationscontained within international frameworks for disaster risk reduction andcultural heritage protection.

Considerations

There are a few issues perhaps not considered within the normal scope ofemergency management planning that University Librarians may wishto consider.Within emergency management, the term ‘resilience building’ is common.

Defined by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR,2017) as the ‘ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards toresist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effectsof a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preserva-tion and restoration of its essential basic structures and functions throughrisk management’, resilience building encourages consideration for prepared-ness measures prior to a disruptive event occurring.Within the literature, case studies (Grant, 2000; Allain & Vallas, 2014;

Fullerton, 2004; Roberts, 2015) provide common examples of low prepared-ness levels to disruptive events including out of date collection lists andcontact numbers of staff, lack of training to respond to damaged materials,no emergency plan or if one exists, the focus is primarily on damage tocollections rather than continuity of services, and no planning to deal withmedia interest or spontaneous volunteerism. A lack of awareness andunderstanding regarding insurance coverage of collections, particularlySpecial Collections, was another commonality, although research into thisissue is very limited within the literature (Cady, 1999; Matthews & Eden,1996). However, in the majority of cases, unless destroyed by fire or theft,Special Collections survive and can be treated or restored at considerablecost (Kostagiolas et al., 2011; Cady, 1999; Cullingford, 2016). These impact-ful issues could have been mitigated or appropriate responses consideredpreviously, limiting the impact, assisting in a quicker recovery.Highlighting the role academic library leaders have in progressing pre-

paredness and resilience building measures, Graham and Spennemann(2006) argue ‘if cultural heritage is fortunate enough to survive the physicalimpact of the disaster itself – will it survive the decisions made during orafter the disaster? The effects of ill-considered management action can bedevastating’. It is the link between disruptive events and the complex cascad-ing results that affect service continuity and issues not readily considered intraditional emergency management plans, which library management mayneed to consider. Considering and reviewing essential systems and processes,creating a vulnerability matrix for core services, allows the library to identify

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preparedness measures having the greatest impact for core services(Roberts, 2015).Within organisations such as universities and libraries, resilience building

resides in both individual and organisational responses to disruptive events,and involve the ability to withstand systematic disruptions and capability toadapt to new environments (Starr, Newfrock, & Delurey, 2003; Crichton,Ramsay, & Kelly, 2009). Educational institutions are examples of ‘naïveorganisations’ as they ‘see low probability of such events occurring’ and‘are less likely to apply resources to prepare for such events’ (Hannah, Uhl-Bien, Avolio, & Cavarretta, 2009, p. 901). Leaders in organisations that seelow probability of extreme events occurring often fail to realise the import-ance of preparation (Otis, 2007; D’Aveni & MacMillan, 1990; Kiesler &Sproull, 1982).Leadership is critical in preparation for disruptive events, providing fore-

sight, planning, training, and other preparedness efforts (McConnell &Drennan, 2006; Smits & Ally, 2003). Human tendencies to believe that itcan’t happen to us, must be overcome and require a cognitive shift towardspotential threats and implementing vigilance and preparedness required(Foldy, Goldman, & Ospina, 2008; Hannah et al., 2009).Leadership within the context of disruptive events is often discussed as

‘technical’ or ‘adaptive’ (Heifetz, Linsky, & Grashow, 2009). Technical chal-lenges require leaders with specific expertise, but adaptive challengesrequire creative solutions to evolving situations. Adaptive leadership isdefined by ‘change that enables the capacity to thrive in crisis environ-ments’ (Hayashi & Soo, 2012, p. 80). For leaders operating in extreme con-texts, trust formed prior to events occurring is critical to subsequentperformance. A lack of trust in leader’s decisions can result in decreasedteam cohesion and commitment (Hamby, 2002). Indeed, if leadership isweak during non-stressful periods, ‘it will prove even weaker when disasterstrikes’ (Quarantelli, 1998, p. 379).University Librarians demonstrating adaptive leadership assist in build-

ing resilience as an organisational unit. By building organisational resili-ence, Special Collections are better placed to be protected by libraryteams who can adapt to changing disruptive situations. As an example,Parker (2012) investigated Morgan Library in Colorado State University,USA, which was impacted after catastrophic flooding hit the town in1997. The research examined the incident response while recovery was inprogress, from an employee perspective. Returning 10 years later, employ-ees were asked what motivated their pre-disaster and post-disaster activ-ities. The emergent picture highlighted the significance of the motivationand trust library management provided pre-disaster to employees, allow-ing a pre-disaster culture that welcomed experimentation and trial and

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error, leading to an ability of employees to innovate and change duringdisruptive events. This is shown in the example to restore services andresources quickly, requiring an innovative and creative approach, result-ing in the development of RapidILL, (“RapidILL, Home”, 2019), a servicesupplementing borrowing by generating and organising newly establishedarrangements with other libraries willing to expedite delivery of journalarticles to Colorado State users’ computer desktops through electronicmeans. Ascent practice at the time, and intended to be a temporary meas-ure, it has since become an industry best practice with over 300 librariesglobally utilising the system.In addition, researchers have investigated the relationship between emo-

tional intelligence and library leaders, due to limited research that exploredthe relationship between emotional intelligence competencies (self-awareness,self-management, social awareness and relationship management as stated byGoleman, 2005) and the personal attributes of academic library responseteams who require skills and knowledge, but also the emotional intelligenceto deal with disruptive events (Hernon, Giesecke, & Alire, 2008; Hernon &Rossiter, 2006; Kreitz, 2009).In a 2015 study, the relationship between emotional intelligence compe-

tencies and personal attributes of librarians in response teams found astrong relationship between the two, finding teams created a culture ofcamaraderie, sharing responsibility to cope with the disruptive event, whichwas exemplified through emotional intelligent competencies. These add-itional considerations may assist library leaders in identifying potential staffmembers to train and appoint to disruptive event management teams. Inreviewing the organisational culture pre-event, researchers discovered thatthe supportive culture provided by the University Librarian and the promo-tion of ‘fluidity of leadership across teams’ was a key factor in buildingresilience during disruptive events (Wilkinson, 2015).By turning intense organisational experiences into positive applications

of employees’ intentionality, creativity, and innovation, this can motivatestaff to undertake activities that build capacity for response and changeefforts, building employees’ psychological resilience and confidence for han-dling crises. Training, which encourages critical thinking and flexibility andnot just focussed on dealing with collections, is key (Mitroff, 2005). Anemergency management plan is never perfect. Adaptability is a key skillthat needs to be reflected and encouraged by the University Librarian intoorganisational culture and leadership philosophy.By engaging further with service continuity, and a longer term commit-

ment towards resilience building, library employees ‘buy in’ to the idea thatimpacts from hazards can be reduced or eliminated though their ownawareness and actions, and motivating library personnel to accept this

NEW REVIEW OF ACADEMIC LIBRARIANSHIP 11

responsibility and training them to respond effectively, should be an aim oflibrary management (Pierard et al., 2016; Buchanan, 1981; Robertson, 2008).

Conclusion

Whilst the initial connection between cultural preservation during disrup-tive events and Special Collections held in academic libraries may not beobvious immediately, Special Collections do hold items that are valuable toglobal heritage and discussion around protection of cultural heritage heldby academic libraries is not a widely researched area.University Librarians are able to assist in the wide global efforts to pro-

tect cultural and historical heritage in disruptive events by taking a broaderview, aiming to build organisational resilience and emotional intelligence ofstaff, essentially the ‘front line’ responders of any emergencies library mayface. Unless procedures and plans can be intuitively applied during a fast-moving crises, the response will not be as effective (Seville et al., 2006).University libraries striving for success need to cultivate resilience to sup-port adaption during turbulent periods.Ultimately, it is important for University Librarians to remember that

they are custodians of the past. Whilst a written emergency managementplan is one useful tool, building resilience and developing staff with theskills required, including emotional intelligence, flexibility and adaptability,is a move towards building a more resilient unit. This will ultimately bene-fit Special Collections in the event of disruption and contribute to inter-national disaster risk reduction polices and aims.

ORCID

Johanna Garnett http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1716-3506

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