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A Library Under Water: Remembering the Flood of 1997
An Exhibit Presented by Colorado State University Libraries
Archives & Special Collections
July 26 - August 31
M-F; 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Room 202; Morgan Library
On the evening of July 28, 1997, a 7-foot wall of water descended on the newly renovated Morgan Library at Colorado State University. Noted as one of the most devastating disasters to hit an academic library (bested only by the damage wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita) nearly 500,000 volumes including the library’s bound journal collection and a substantial portion of the sciences, social sciences and humanities books were lost to the murky waters and raw sewage rushing in.
Clean-up in the days following the disaster involved more than 100 people packing nearly 70,000 boxes full of soggy materials to be shipped to a special freezing facility in Fort Worth, Texas, where a long process began of sorting and restoring the volumes that could be salvaged. The basement Morgan Library would also undergo major repair. Much of the brand-new shelving and flooring would need replacement and the Library would need an eradication plan for the mold that quickly began to spread in the July heat up the walls of the basement, threatening the rest of the library’s collection housed on the floors above.
A decade after the flood, the basement of Morgan Library has been fully restored and the Library has succeeded in the tremendous task of replacing and re-cataloging many of the almost 500,000 damaged volumes. Yet more than just recovering, Morgan Library has emerged as a leader in such areas as interlibrary loan, providing electronic resources and services, information literacy education, and disaster preparedness for library and archival materials.
Visit the Archive to view images, articles, and other primary artifacts from this terrible event.
For more information about the display, contact the Archive @ 491-1844