On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, patrons and staff outside of the building realized this was not the usual fire alarm. As one fireman recounted, "Once that first stack got going, it was 'Goodbye, Charlie.'" The fire was disastrous, reaching 2000 degrees and burning for more than seven hours. It consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more....

"Digitizing your collection is not only a great way to increase access to your materials, it also engages patrons on a whole new level and helps communicate your library's value. But with staff time and resources already spread thin, it can be a challenge to plan and undertake a digitization initiative. The good news is that public libraries across the country have done just that. Here, the authors share lessons and tips for success, showing the way...

When the Impossible Postal Express is charged with returning an overdue library book, Suzy Smith looks forward to a nice, simple delivery-just the thing she needs to convince her anxious parents to let her keep her job on the train. So she's less than thrilled to discover that not only is the book alive, it's full of a growing and dangerous magic. Worse still, the world to which it belongs is missing, and Suzy and her friends will have to use all...

"Libraries are magical places. But what if they're even more magical than we know? In Cyrille Martinez's library, the books are alive: not just their ideas or their stories, but the books themselves. Meet the Angry Young Book, who has strong opinions about who reads what and why. He's tired of people reading bestsellers, so he places himself on the desks of those who might appreciate him. Meet the Old Historian who mysteriously vanished from the stacks....

Written to cover all types of disasters and to help Navy Libraries and Archives.