Assessment of disaster management practices in school libraries with reference to Aga khan academy Library

Abstract

Libraries and information centres a re vulnerable to a whole range of disasters. For instance , fire that is caused by arson or faulty electrical systems; flooding from burst pipes, or following heavy rain; break - ins and theft as a result of inadequate security preca utions: all these incidents can be costly in terms of damage and loss of material some of which may be unique equipment and systems. The study s ought to carry out an assessment of disaster management practices in school libraries with Aga Khan Academy lib rary used as the case study. The study used a case study approach where both quantitative and qualitative design s w ere applied . It target ed a population of 502 respondents that comprise d of the school top management, teaching staff, library staff and stude nts. The sample for the study was 76 respondents which translate d to 1 5 percent of the targeted population that w ere sampled through stratified random sampling. Questionnaires were the key data collection tool that was used but also supplemented by intervi ews. T he collected data w as analy z ed statistically using SPSS. T he study found out that school libraries encounter a number of disasters which include fire, flood, wars and or student riots, negligence and poor maintained buildings. Nonetheless, school lib raries have not put in place adequate mitigation measures for such disasters. Thus , t he study concluded that school libraries should put in place a number of disasters which need to be properly managed. Thus, the study proposed a number of recommendations which include institution of a disaster management policy to govern disaster management implementation. Importantly, the disaster management policy must be endorsed by the top management of the school for it to be binding to all school stakeholders.