The document describes water damage from flooding in Florence, Italy in 1966 and Manchester, NH in 2007 and the human response to recovering damaged materials. Thousands of volunteers helped dry over 1.5 million volumes damaged in the Florence flooding. Book conservation became a more formalized profession after this event. The Manchester flooding was contained quickly due to an immediate emergency response. Planning emergency procedures and having contact lists of recovery vendors are important for responding to future disasters.

1. Water Damage and the Human Response Factor 1966 Florence, Italy 2007 Manchester, NH

2. The Arno Floods Florence Drying books at a synagogue, standing upright to promote air circulation Imagine 20 ft of water, river mud, debris and fuel oil. Now imagine it rushing through the streets and basements of Florence’s libraries, churches and municipal buildings. The damage to books and manuscripts was immense. The National Library (the legal deposit library of Italy) had one third of its collections damaged (1,500,000 volumes). The State Archives, with Medici and Palatine documents, were also water-logged and damaged (about 40, 000). And this is not to mention all the other smaller libraries throughout the city!

3. Books are brought to various sites throughout Italy to dry and to be cleaned. Photographs are taken to accompany books through the restoration process. Pages are interleaved continually, washed, line-dried, treated with fungicides, collated and wrapped in brown envelopes. All books were dried by 1967. Ultimately the books return to the National Library to be rebound. The reading room was transformed into a mending lab and bindery. Removal of National Library books and manuscripts from mud and water. Took almost three weeks with hundreds of volunteers .

9. MCL: HVAC System Failure