[LINK] Recovery of universities, libraries and archives from floods

[Tom Worthington]

Marghanita da Cruz wrote (was: "zoomable satellite map of Brisbane floods"):
> Ivan Trundle wrote:
>> On 20/01/2011, at 11:45 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:
>> 
>>> Does anyone know if UQ sustained much damage on campus?
>> QUT certainly did. ...

When I was briefly a student at QUT several decades ago, I toured the
computer centre with someone who was checking the flood contingency
plan. The main "Gardens Point" campus is on a bend in the Brisbane 
River, with a cliff on the opposite bank. As a result flood water tends 
to take the path of least resistance, through the campus.

> QUT is in the CBD ...

QUT has several campuses. Some have reopened. Details are in "Flood
Communication from Registrar", 14 January 2011:
<http://www.hrd.qut.edu.au/staff/email.jsp>.

> UQ is in Saint Lucia. I heard references to flooding ...

The University of Queensland has several campuses, with the main one at
St Lucia and the one at Gatton most affected. Details are in "UQ flood
recovery well under way", 15 January 2011:
<http://www.uq.edu.au/news/index.html?article=22513>

Just to get this on topic for Link, the universities have made good use
of their web sites for keeping staff and students informed of what is
happening. This is not by chance, as universities put considerable
effort into emergency communications, including SMS systems for urgent
items. I take part in the EDUCAUSE "Emergency Communications Constituent 
Group" discussions: <http://www.educause.edu/groups/emergcomm>.

Online education facilities have proved useful, as these allow students 
to continue to keep in touch and continue their studies, even if a 
campus is closed. To allow for that, universities have backup computer 
centres at a secondary campus, or other location (at least the sensible 
ones do).

Also the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has 
complied a "List of libraries in flood affected areas" for the recent 
Queensland and Victorian floods: <http://www.alia.org.au/disasterrecovery/>.

The Australian Society of Archivists (ASA) is compiling a similar
Register of Disaster Affected Archives:
<http://www.archivists.org.au/news/id/29>.

The Register will be used by Blue Shield Australia with helping save
cultural heritage: <http://www.blueshieldaustralia.org.au/>

Organisations are asked to send details of affected archives.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science, The
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/
Visiting Scientist, CSIRO ICT Centre: http://bit.ly/csiro_ict_canberra