Repurchasing Journals Lost in a Major Disaster: Library and Vendor Perspectives

Recent disasters and their effects on libraries remind us of the vulnerability of library collections. A water-related disaster at Colorado State University (CSU) in 1997 resulted in a large recovery operation, the last part of which included a project to replace by repurchasing more than 9,000 bound journal volumes. This project began with a sampling technique to help determine replacement cost, continued with a detailed request for proposal, and ended with a productive collaboration between CSU Libraries and Absolute Backorder Services, Inc. The article includes perspectives by both library and vendor staff.