Library damage resulting from the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
Encyclopedia
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
struck off of the northwest coast of the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n island of Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
. The resulting tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
s killed more than 180,000 people. In addition to the loss of human lives, cultural institutions were destroyed in several Asian nations. Libraries
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
on the Eastern coast of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and the northern province of Aceh
Aceh
Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...
on Sumatra were most severely affected by the disaster.
Effect on libraries in India
Damage to libraries in IndiaIndia
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
has not been well documented. Water damage was reported at Madras University Library in Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
. The Asian Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 to facilitate economic development of countries in Asia...
reports extensive damage to schools in the Indian states of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
and Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
. A government assessment found that 252 schools in Tamil Nadu need complete reconstruction, 19 need major repairs and 49 need minor repairs.
In the Andaman
Andaman Islands
The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...
and Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...
, 78 teachers are listed as killed or missing. Further, 25 percent of primary schools, 33 percent of upper primary schools, and 31 percent of senior secondary schools were seriously damaged, indicating that school libraries in the region also suffered damages.
Effect on libraries in Indonesia
The Sumatran province of AcehAceh
Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...
was severely damaged by the earthquake and resulting tsunami. An estimated 167,736 Indonesians were killed and 25% of Achenese lost their source of livelihood. Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh is the provincial capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia, located on the island of Sumatra, with an elevation of 35 meters. The city regency covers an area of 64 square kilometres and according to the 2000 census had a population of 219,070 people...
, Aceh's capital, was the closest major city to the earthquake's epicenter, and many of its major libraries suffered extensive damage.
Public libraries
The Aceh Provincial Library (BPD) was inundated with three meters of water. Twenty three staff members were killed, including the library's director, Bachtiar Azis, who is listed as missing along with his family. In addition to loss of life, the BPD suffered physical damage and a near total loss of its collection. Concrete and steel fences surrounding the two-story building were mostly destroyed, however, the building itself remained standing. All library materials housed on the first floor were swept away by the waves and the floor was covered in 30 cm.-thick mud. These lost materials comprise most of its children, young adult and adult collections. The water did not reach the second floor, but looting resulted in the loss of most materials and equipment. A collection of books received under legal deposit and housed on the second floor was left undisturbed and survived the disaster and looting intact. Despite these losses, the BPD reopened to the public in May 2005. As of August 2005, repairs were still being made to the building, the library lacked computers for its warintek (information technology section), and most areas of the library needed furnishing and collection replacement.Of Aceh's eight public libraries
Public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the public and is generally funded from public sources and operated by civil servants. There are five fundamental characteristics shared by public libraries...
, two were completely destroyed. These libraries were located in the hard-hit cities of Meulaboh
Meulaboh
Meulaboh is the capital of West Aceh Regency, Indonesia. Meulaboh is among the hardest hit areas by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Being just 150 km from the epicenter of the earthquake, Meulaboh was hit by tsunami, leaving the estimated deaths of 40,000 people out of 120,000...
and Sigli
Sigli
Sigli is a town in Aceh province of Indonesia and it is the seat of Pidie Regency.Sigli is locate 112 kilometers from Banda Aceh.SportPersatuan Sepakbola Aceh Pidie is the football club from Sigli....
.
Mobile library units, or perpustakaan keliling, are used to serve rural areas of Aceh. Days before the earthquake and tsunami, the BPD had received two newly built mobile library units from the National Library of Indonesia
National Library of Indonesia
The National Library of Indonesia is the legal deposit library of Indonesia. It serves primarily as a humanities library alongside several others holding national responsibilities for science and agriculture. The national library was established in 1980 through a decree of the Ministry of...
. Both of these were destroyed along with the rest of the mobile libraries parked on the BPD's carport. In July 2005, the National Library donated two replacement mobile units, however the new BPD director noted that further units were needed to adequately serve outlying regions of the province.
Archives
The Aceh Documentation and Information Center, known for its collection of rare books and manuscripts chronicling the heritage of Aceh, was completely destroyed. Only half of the building remained standing, and the entire collection was swept away. A team from the National Library of Indonesia visiting in January 2005 was able to salvage only three books and one sheet of the genealogy of the MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
kings of Aceh. These were taken to Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
for restoration.
The Provincial Archives Agency lost 80 percent of the photographs in its collection.
The Secretariat Office of the Aceh Province lost 160 boxes of records.
The Aceh branch of the National Land Register Agency was inundated with water. Roughly 629 boxes of materials certifying individual land ownership in the province were damaged. Due to the efforts of a team of conservators from Japan and archivists from the National Archives in Jakarta, many of these land register documents were preserved.
School libraries
Damage to school libraries has not been well documented. The Indonesia National Library reports that SMA 1, a high school in Banda Aceh, was not damaged by flood waters as it is located on the second floor, however, did experience some earthquake damage. Overall, 2,364 teachers and staff members were killed and 2,240 schools were destroyed on Sumatra and its outlying islands.The Central Library at the Ar-Raniri Institute for Islamic Studies, a public Islamic University in Banda Aceh, lost its information servers due to theft and seawater damage.
Museums and religious libraries
Baiturrahman Grand Mosque Library in Banda Aceh lost its entire collection. Due to the mosque'sMosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
central location and importance to the community, a concerted effort was made to clear and repair this complex of buildings immediately after the tsunami. As of August 2005 the library had reopened with 1,200 books in its collection.
The library of the Agricultural Information Institute of Banda Aceh was inundated with water from the tsunami but its physical structure remained intact.
The Library and Museum of the Ali Hasymy Educational Foundation survived intact as the tsunami did not reach this area of Banda Aceh.
Effect on libraries in Malaysia
According to a Malaysian professor of library scienceLibrary science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
, damage to libraries was minimal in Malaysia.
Effect on libraries in the Maldives
All of the 199 inhabited islands comprising the MaldivesMaldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
atolls were affected by the tsunami. The Maldives Library Association was not able to survey all public libraries across the atoll, however, a representative indicated some libraries were completely destroyed.
School libraries
Forty-six percent of schools in the Maldives were damaged, and nine schools were completely destroyed.Effect on libraries in Thailand
Damage to libraries in ThailandThailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
has not been well documented. The Ministry of Education has reported that five schools were completely destroyed and 51 schools were damaged.
Effect on libraries in Sri Lanka
More than 35,000 Sri LankaSri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
ns were killed and 516,000 people were displaced as a result of the tsunami. Roughly 60 percent of the coastal area of Sri Lanka was severely affected by the tsunami. Libraries across the country were damaged, and it is estimated that 1.2 million volumes of books and other reading materials were destroyed in the disaster.
Public libraries
Out of the 950 public libraries in Sri Lanka, 55 libraries were affected and 28 were completely destroyed. Several libraries were used as refuge centers or hospitals in the aftermath of the tsunami, and surviving furniture and collections suffered as a result.School libraries
One estimate of damage to school libraries in Sri Lanka indicates that of the 9,790 schools in the country, 182 schools were directly affected by the tsunami and an additional 282 schools were damaged because of their use as refugee camps after the tsunami. While not all of these schools had a full-fledged library, most had a book closet or other collection of materials. At least 165 school libraries were damaged by the tsunami. Compounding the damage, many schools had large collection of textbooks on hand for distribution to students at the beginning of the school year in January. Damage reports range from furniture damage to lost collections to complete destruction of the physical building...Archives
Sri Lankan government departments lost public records to the tsunami. In the Southern province, all electoral registers were destroyed, along with 600,000 land deeds from the Department of the Surveyor General.Museums and religious libraries
Sixty-eight libraries affiliated with religious institutions and at least three museums were damaged by the tsunami. Many of these libraries were attached to BuddhistBuddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
s and contained valuable collections of palm leaf manuscripts and documents relating to Ayurveda
Ayurveda
Ayurveda or ayurvedic medicine is a system of traditional medicine native to India and a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, words , meaning "longevity", and , meaning "knowledge" or "science". The earliest literature on Indian medical practice appeared during the Vedic period in India,...
, the indigenous medical tradition.
The National Maritime Museum
National Maritime Museum (Galle)
The National Maritime Museum in Galle, Sri Lanka is located within the Galle fort. On March 2010, it was reopened at the Dutch warehouse of the Galle fort as the National Maritime Archaeology Museum....
in Galle
Galle
Galle is a city situated on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, 119 km from Colombo. Galle is the capital city of Southern Province of Sri Lanka and it lies in Galle District....
lost 90 percent of its collection, mostly artifacts salvaged from underwater wrecks and archaeology sites. The museum also lost all of its computers and other technical equipment. The collection housed in the Martin Wickramasinghe Folk Museum of Koggala survived relatively unscathed, however the children's library attached to the museum was severely damaged along with most of the museum's furniture. The Maritime Archaeology Unit of the Central Cultural Fund was also severely damaged, resulting in the loss of artifacts from an 18th century Dutch shipwreck that were eventually to be donated to a museum.
Sri Lankan response
In the weeks following the disaster, the International Federation of Library Associations and InstitutionsInternational Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions is the leading international association of library organisations. It is the global voice of the library and information profession, and its annual conference provides a venue for librarians to learn from one another...
cooperated with UNESCO, the Sri Lanka Library Association
Sri Lanka Library Association
The Sri Lanka Library Association is the main library association of Sri Lanka.It was founded in 1960 as the Ceylon Library Association , based on organization carried out in the late 1950s by a group of senior librarians. In 1974, it was given official status by Act No...
, the National Library and Documentation Center of Sri Lanka and other organizations to create the Sri Lanka Disaster Management Committee for Libraries, Information Services and Archives (SL DMC-LISA). The committee worked to secure funding for temporary libraries and computer equipment and began reviewing architectural plans for rebuilding libraries. Further initiatives were developed to encourage "twinning" or pairing of Sri Lankan libraries with donors.
In addition to working with the disaster committee, the Sri Lanka Library Association targeted five libraries for rebuilding with the intent of creating model institutions. As of 2006, three of these libraries had re-opened, while progress on the other two was delayed due to political instability in the region.