In March 2023, heavy rains in Los Angeles resulted in flooding and water intrusions in Doheny Library that damaged over 650 items held by the USC Libraries’ Special Collections.
Our Special Collections team has been assessing the damage and working closely with USC Libraries administration, facilities, print management, and technical services and USC Facilities Planning Management and USC Risk Management to enact a plan that includes: shipping items to an off-site preservation specialist for treatment, identifying funding to replace items damaged beyond repair, updating the libraries catalog and discovery platforms with details on availability of items, and deploying a communications plan to researchers and departments whose teaching, learning, research, and creative endeavors are directly impacted by the loss of the damaged items.
You can track the status of damaged items using the spreadsheet in this guide. We will update the spreadsheet as items are returned from the off-site conservator and made available for use or replaced with similar items newly acquired by Special Collections.