At 4.36am on Saturday 4th September, a magnitude 7 earthquake struck near Christchurch, New Zealand. How it affected the libraries here is an overwhelmingly large topic, but Kathryn Greenhill kindly responded to my plea for some questions to prompt me in writing about it.

1. Do you remember where you were when the earthquake hit?

Hahahaha yeah. I was rolling out of bed and scrambling into the corner that previous idle daydreaming had determined would be the best place to be (later I learned that if one’s in bed one’s safest to stay there with a pillow over one’s head, but my corner was probably second best) and bracing myself there while the house roared and shadows moved in the dark. I think the fastest moving shadow was my cat hiding under the bed. I stayed in my wonderful corner – with a brief excursion to get laptop, radio, and warm clothes – for several hours, as we were getting little aftershocks every few minutes to start with.

2. When did you realize that the library might have a problem and what went through your mind?

It was late morning before I really thought about it, and I think I mostly thought, “Oh God how many books are we going to have to pick up?” That day was strange because in my suburb there was very little damage and people were doing ordinary Saturday lawn mowing, but on the radio we were hearing about the destruction in other suburbs and the CBD. So I didn’t know what things were like at the university, only (from a hasty note plastered on the homepage) that it was closed.

3. Do you remember when you were told what the damage was?

On Sunday my manager phoned us all and passed on what she knew. That was still incomplete of course. The situation was changing on an hourly basis for days, on a daily basis for weeks. The university also put news and photos up on its website.

4. Did you know whether your library had a disaster recovery plan?

Yes, and it had been used in small ways before the quake. With something the scope of the quake it was of course just part of the whole university’s disaster recovery plan.

5. How long before you could go back in and what was it like in the days after the main quake?

We had to wait until it was certified safe. That was almost done when on Wednesday a large aftershock caused more damage and they had to check the buildings again. By this time I was quite desperate to go back and do something. The constant aftershocks made us tired and anxious and I couldn’t concentrate on anything I’d normally do on a surprise involuntary holiday. At one point I saw a photo of workers putting books on shelves and I was devastated to think we wouldn’t have the solace of that physical labour. It didn’t occur to me until we were back on Friday that they were actually taking the books off the shelves, so the shelves could be dismantled to make room for repairs.

6. What was it like to reenter the building?

For me it was overwhelmed by how wonderful it was to catch up with my colleagues and be among people properly again. I spent most of Friday in two branches that hadn’t been much damaged, working on what access and information we could provide users just through the website. It was definitely weird though. That Friday we had to sign in and out, and wear lanyards. Computers had to be tested before we could use them. In one building things had fallen against the inside of a door, jamming it closed, so there was a mighty wielding of power tools.

Just before the end of the day I briefly visited my own branch (EPS Library). By then the rest of my team had tidied up most of the ground floor – we weren’t allowed upstairs yet. When I came back on Monday I had to wipe all the plaster dust off my desk. Windows would develop cracks overnight from little aftershocks. And of course there were no students around those first days, so nothing was as normal.

7. What did the cleanup involve?

Once everything was certified safe, it depended on the library. In EPS Library, some windows had to be replaced. A dozen stacks on level 2 were dismantled so scaffolding could reach the ceiling to replace fallen tiles. More stacks on level 3 were dismantled because they’d been damaged or weakened and needed rebuilding, and we had to shuffle books from stack to stack to make room for that. We had the library open downstairs while this was happening upstairs (we brought extra tables down to jam as much study space in as possible), and the noise of heavy things dropping and shaking the building was occasionally a bit much for aftershock-jangled nerves. I had to go for a sudden long walk one afternoon. But the students were awesome about it.

Once all that was done we got to put the rest of the books back. They’d been piled out of our way — in our beanbag area on level 2 the piles stood taller than I am, and on level 3 they were two piles deep under desks along three walls. Also lining a walkway, and on top of desks, and in various other random places. (Photos on Flickr.) The contractors told us they’d sorted them for us by size, but they were just joking. Any criterion they were sorted by was beyond mortal understanding, though occasionally we found three or even four books together in order of LC number. It was so overwhelming it was easier to just laugh at it all.

Fortunately we knew the ranges that should be on each stack, and someone had the idea to run reports to find out how many books were in each range. The reports weren’t perfect (some item types weren’t included, and of course they made no distinction between a 10-page report and a 1000-page tome) but we could label each bay with a guesstimate of what should be there, and that helped a lot. We all pitched in and hired extra people to help so it only took a few weeks.

We opened up bits of the library space and lending as we finished them. Of course we’d finally got everything back to normal, after six weeks, when Just Another Fecking Aftershock brought down some more ceiling tiles, so yet again we’ve got one room closed to the public and are retrieving books several times a day.

8. Was there much damage?

No structural damage. The floor has a new ridge between two sections, but it was designed to do that in such an event. Windows and ceilings and shelves — all repairable. Surface cracks in all sorts of places. The odd daunting hole in a desk where a ceiling tile punched almost all the way through. (The new tiles are lighter, the new windows are stronger, and the shelves have extra reinforcing.) Only a trolley-load of damaged books. Mostly it was just a giant mess.

9. What was the damage to libraries around the city?

Academic libraries:

• At University of Canterbury, Education, Law and Macmillan Brown were fully operational by the time students were back; EPS is now mostly open. Central Library had ceiling tiles down in the technical services workrooms, windows broken, and some stacks down. Staff are working in other spaces, and services are being provided from Law while Central’s shelves are remade over the summer (plans for Central; full current situation at UC).
• I’m not sure about the full scope of damage at Lincoln University but they have photos on Facebook and I believe they’re now basically back to normal.
• CPIT had minimal mess (blog post) and their staff helped Lincoln with clean-up there.
• Canterbury Medical Library has photos available.

Public libraries:

• Christchurch City Libraries provided extra services through the mobile library while branches were being checked for safety, but all branches are now open again. They’re now hosting the Kete Christchurch : Canterbury Earthquake 2010.
• Outside Christchurch, Selwyn Libraries needed repairs, tidying, and drying soggy carpet (photos) but were operational within several days. The Kaiapoi branch of Waimakariri Libraries is heavily damaged and closed until further notice; two other branches are open and the Christchurch City Mobile Library is making visits to Kaiapoi (more info about books, budgie and goldfish).

The special libraries I’ve heard about generally tended to “messy but tidyable”. Some volunteer libraries have been damaged.

10. What did you learn from the experience?

Drop, cover and hold. Putting together an emergency kit is an excellent way to keep yourself busy in the aftermath of an emergency. A jolt is nearer than a rumble. Blutack is your friend.

A stack can stand on a book for weeks and barely dent the cover. When working in plaster dust, wash hands with water, then with soap, then moisturise (not forgetting the fingernails). If people really want to borrow a book, no amount of yellow “Keep out” tape will stop them — although they can be persuaded not to sit and study directly underneath a precarious ceiling tile.