Earthquake report

The following appeared on ExLibris and is reposted with permission

    Date: 19 Jan 94
    From: David Zeidberg <ecz5dav [at] uclamvs__bitnet>
    Subject: Earthquake report from UCLA
    To: Multiple recipients of list EXLIBRIS <EXLIBRIS [at] RUTVM1__BITNET>

    Dear Friends and Colleagues:

    Let me thank all of you who wrote us directly for your good
    thoughts. This was one of the most severe earthquakes we have
    suffered, but I am happy to report that most of the UCLA buildings
    have minimal structural damage. Our landmark building Royce Hall has
    damage to its twin towers and its status remains uncertain. But our
    libraries have come through well structurally. The problems are
    internal -- we estimate about 1 million books in the aisles, but
    work has progressed quickly to reshelve. The Biomedical, College,
    and Management libraries reopened today, and we expect the rest of
    the libraries to reopen by the end of the week.

    Three libraries did not fair well with their shelving. Arts,
    Physics, and our department have had shelving ranges buckle into the
    parallelograms Helene Whitson described about San Francisco State in
    a previous message. We have twenty ranges in Special Collections in
    this condition. Each range is 15 feet long and ten feet high, with
    seven to nine shelves in each section, depending upon the size of
    the volumes shelved in the range. What is remarkable is that few
    books actually were pitched off. The shelves remained parallel to
    the ground and the books stayed put for the most part. Still we have
    extensive conservation work to do for those that fell.

    Some of you have asked about ALA Mid-winter and the ABAA Book Fair
    two weeks hence. While movement around the city will be a bit more
    difficult due to the freeway problems, everything is going ahead on
    schedule as far as I know. None of the downtown hotels sustained
    structural damage nor did the Airport Hilton where the book fair
    will be held. The new Century freeway may be the best route to take
    from downtown to the airport since the Santa Monica has several
    detours around collapsed sections.

    On the personal side, I am happy to report that none of us was
    injured and few have had structural damage to their homes. But all
    of us had internal damage with books pitched off the shelves,
    picture frames and glass broken, and other broken glass. There are
    many more less fortunate than us--estimated 15-20,000 homeless. If
    any of you want to help, the best way to do so is to make a
    contribution to the Red Cross and designate it for southern
    California earthquake relief.

    Jim Davis and I are still planning to come to BibWeek in New York
    next week and hope to see many of you there. Bill Joyce, who is
    teaching this quarter in the Library School, is getting a lot more
    than he bargained for. He may want to renegotiate his contract. Once
    again, thanks to all of you for your good wishes and kind thoughts.
    We're pressing on. --DSZ

    David S. Zeidberg
    Head, Department of Special Collections
    UCLA
    310-825-4879
    Fax: 310-206-1864

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 7:52
                 Distributed: Friday, January 21, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-7-52-006
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