Let’s talk about fire for a second. Let’s say your library catches on fire. Don’t worry, the firemen got there in time and all you’ve got is some singed carpet, a pile of melted plastic, and a lot of smoke. No one was hurt, and no books have turned to ash.

What do you do next?

Are you thinking rationally? Or are you prone to crisis?

First, we’ll address crisis. It may sound like this: “What the hell happened? How can we ever recover? This is the absolute worst thing that has ever happened in over the entire course of history!” Sound familiar?

But maybe it’s a little less crisis, though still self-centered: “Oh great. Now I need to go pick out a new table, get some carpet and a nail gun from the hardware store, and stop at the paint store to get some paint chips so I can match the color to repaint. We’re going to have to replace all of the books destroyed by smoke, too.”

Let’s try rational, now. Fire was the first invention, and it has been around since the beginning of human kind. The local fire department has personnel specifically trained to address the problem and the provide guidance on the aftermath. Several companies exist to handle things like smoke removal and damage mitigation, and are probably already contracted by your organization. The organization’s facilities management department already has the paint and extra carpet and it is within their union contract that they complete that work, so they will take care of it. And, there are well-established practices in this profession for handling smoke-damage materials–why not ask your colleagues? Someone probably knows, and if they don’t, someone definitely knows where to look for someone who does.

Reacting in crisis mode is an insular practice. It’s inefficient, impractical, and entirely ignorant of the existence of anyone and anything else that came before that moment.

Oddly, though, fires are possibly the least common worry crises in libraries. Instead, we find folks trying to reinvent the wheel as though they have never seen one before; so many Librarians that don’t know how to Librarian due to a lack of personal, lived experience on which to draw. Instead of asking around or reading the literature for examples and solutions, they try to come up with an answer of their own accord.

This seems to be most common among specific generations of newer Librarians, especially in places that have lost a lot of institutional knowledge due to retirements or attrition, and spaces that have been refilled by Librarians who have never worked in another library. Generally, they don’t think to ask for information, or find the answers, in the greatest library irony there is, in the place where people come to ask and find. They only know how to resolve and attain, even if they don’t know the answer or where to look.

Just ask. You never know who may have the answer. And the fire will be just another day in the field.

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Disclaimer:
All words and images are my own. If they are not, they are cited as such to give proper attribution to the intellectual property owners.
No words or images reflect the opinions or viewpoints of my current, former, or future employers and educational institutions. They are from my own viewpoint.