Yesterday was a fairly interesting day… some may say a bit ‘traumatic.’  When I first started working at the Consortium Library, I became involved with disaster preparedness.  (This means I took a few classes.)  One of the the things you learn is that disasters tend to happen on weekends or days when no one is in the building.  So that when Monday or Tuesday (after a three day weekend) rolls along, relaxed unsuspecting archivists/librarians discover a flooded stacks.  Of course, yesterday we were incredibly lucky. Arlene and I were in, while Greg from AMIPA had come in early.  And, it was Greg who immediately found out about the sheet of water streaming into his stacks.  In addition to us 3 were 45 second graders, their teachers, and roughly 4 parent volunteers.  Somewhere, the god of irony is laughing at us.

All in all we weathered this storm.  The records and oversized exhibit photographs  were relatively unharmed.  The boxes took on most of the water.  Students and other library employees pitched in to rehouse the materials in our staging area.  We pulled together as a team and came out learning many important lessons.  There are too many to name.  But one of my favorite ones is we can get things completed quicker, efficiently, and successfully if we all work together.  Of course my other favorite lesson, learned by way of Arlene’s own experience, is to be careful when pulling boxes of the top shelf after a downpour.  You may end up giving yourself or your fellow teammates an impromptu shower!