ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 634 / Cl-RL News Hanging your software up to dry By N ancy B. Olson Professor, M em orial L ib rary M an kato State University What to do when the roof leaks on your software collection. I n the early m orningof June 19, 1986, a pipe burst in the ceiling somewhere above the technical ser­ vices area of Memorial Library, Mankato State University in Mankato, Minnesota. By the time the leak was discovered and a janitorial crew called in, the water was several inches deep in the acquisi­ tions area, and dripping down the stacks of N a­ tional Union C atalogs in the cataloging area. It was not until librarians reported to work that it was discovered water had also come through the ceiling onto trucks of audiovisual materials, in­ cluding a complete run of the microcomputer soft­ ware serial, SoftD isk. The acquisitions area was vacuumed dry. The wet volumes of the N ation al Union C atalog were sent to be freeze-dried in the usual manner. The audiovisual items were opened and spread out on shelves and tables fo r drying. All film and magnetic tape materials were opened and loosened so moisture would not cause layers of film or tape to stick together. Records were removed from jackets and liners and c a r e f u ll y w iped dry. S tu d y p r in ts w e re propped against shelves. Posters were laid flat, face up, to dry. Fans were brought from homes to circu­ late air throughout the area, and all materials dried quite well, though much of the packaging had to be replaced. Many of the paper items were wrinkled or warped, but they were still usable. T h e microcomputer software seemed hopeless. The cataloging of this software had been finished the previous day, and the 55 issues of SoftD isk, F igure 1. R osie N ock, library tech n ician , dries a disk w ith a hair dryer. Figure 2. A disk is rem oved from its plastic sleeve. Note moisture on disk and in lining of sleeve. most with two disks per issue, were standing almost upright in cardboard boxes, waiting to be labeled with call number and issue number. Because these disks were loose, in open boxes, water falling onto them from above was directed into the plastic sleeves w hich enclose the disks themselves. The water could not drain away, as it was held around the disk by the plasticized jacket in which each enclosed disk is slipped when not in use. W ater poured from many of the disks when they were removed from their jackets. It spurted from the plastic sleeve openings when the sleeves were squeezed. It dripped onto the table as we checked disk after disk, hoping to find some that had been spared from the disaster. There were no dry disks. W e assumed these would be a total loss. How­ ever, Dr. Edmund Colby, coordinator of our Edu­ cational Resource Center, decided to experiment. Disks are permanently encased in plastic sleeves, with a cloth-type lining that is impregnated with a silicone lubricant. This lining holds moisture. For those disks only slightly wet (no water spurted out when the disk was squeezed) a hair dryer with an “air" setting (no heat) was used to thoroughly dry the sleeve lining (see Figure 1). The disk sleeve was held slightly away from the disk and air was di­ rected into the sleeve, being careful to dry both sides of the disk, both sides of the sleeve lining, and Figure 3. The software tree. 636 / C & R L News all corners. These disks were then copied success­ fully. The dripping wet disks were peeled out of their plastic sleeves (see Figure 2). The plastic sleeves of some were relatively easy to pop open. Others were more difficult, and a paper cutter was used, first making sure to tap the sleeve to position the disk away from the edge being cut. Each disk was then wiped dry with a rag! The janitor closet yielded a box of clean, soft, lint-free rags (from old thermal underwear). The waffle­ weave cloth shown in Figure 2 dried well and did not leave lint on the disks. T he disks were then hung for further air drying on the cataloging department “Easter egg tree” (Figure 3). This procedure kept the disks from ouching each other, and also kept the disk surfaces from coming into contact with any other material or contaminants. A new dry disk was then cut open by trimming off about 1/16 inch of the write-protect edge with a paper cutter. The disk was removed from the plas­ tic cover and set aside for later replacement. One by one the bare disks were slipped into this dry cover, run, and copied. All disks copied success­ fully, and everything— including the entire micro­ software serial— was salvaged. ■ ■ t Library consultant in Indonesia By T a n ja Lorkovic H ead o f Cataloging University o f Iow a The state of librarianship in one developing country. T his article was inspired by the consulting re­ port, “The Team Approach to Library Consulting in a Developing Country,” by Carolyn A. Snyder, Larry W. Griffin, Andrea Singer, and Roger Beck­ man of the Indiana University Libraries (C & R L N ew s, December 1985, pp. 629–32). It prompted me to recount my own experiences as a University of Iowa librarian during a year of consulting inter­ nationally at the University of North Sumatra, Me­ dan, Indonesia. In July 1984 the Office of International Educa­ tion and Services of the University of Iowa an­ nounced that the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities (MUCIA) had been awarded a contract funded by the Asian Develop­ ment Bank (ADB Loan No. 525-INO) for the Uni­ versity foNorth Sumatra/Universitas Sumatera Utara (USU) Development Project. The project’s objectives were to upgrade aca­ demic programs, curriculum, teaching manage­ ment, library service, and physical facilities of USU. Among the four long-term and 21 short-term consultancies in diverse academic and professional fields was a request for a library specialist. I ap­ plied and in September 1984 I was appointed by MUCIA to the position of library specialist for the University of North Sumatra Project. In April 1985 the Project Implementation Unit at USU accepted my appointment. During the negotiation between that Unit and MUCIA, the initial 15 man-months for the library specialist was shortened to 12 man- months with the provision that the remaining three months would be allocated for a specialized library consultation that might be needed later. The orien­ tation process started at the University of Iowa where I was given a Bahasa Indonesia textbook,