Water, Mold, and Pests: The World of Preservation Disaster Statistics

Beginning in 2012 and continuing to the present day, the ALCTS/ALA administers a national survey to collect preservation statistics. When the survey began, it included something unique in library history -- that is several questions that illuminated the intersection of disasters and preservation activities. Unfortunately, due to concerns about the length of the survey, questions about that topic were dropped after 2013. This means our field has information about said intersection for only two years. Furthermore, because the reports about these surveys focused on broader issues of preservation, the reports did not fully explore the findings of those years. This article returns to the data sets for the 2012 and 2013 ALCTS/ALA Preservation surveys to more fully explore their findings and to discuss their implications.