Risk and Insurance Management for Libraries - Breighner, Mary, and William Payton, eds. American Library Association, 2005. 124 p. $40.00, Paperback. ISBN 0838983251. 025.1 Libraries—Insurance—Handbooks, manuals, etc. Libraries—Risk management

This how-to book answers questions on insurance and administration of a library’s risk and insurance program. How do you identify the exposures that threaten your library’s assets? How do you quantify the potential loss?

Years ago our library’s roof leaked, and the flood wiped out 90 percent of the collection. We did not have sufficient insurance (it covered only $1800 worth), and since the cost of books is so high, there were hundreds of books we were unable to replace. What should we have done differently? Why weren’t we prepared? This book will help congregational librarians identify and quantify the exposures that threaten the tools of our ministry.

Have you ever thought of what you would do if smoke, fire or other disasters affected your collection, and how you would replace lost materials? Is your collection insured under your church or synagogue’s insurance, or separately?

This book was intended primarily as an aide to larger libraries with sizeable infrastructures, but it also provides excellent insights into risks to and insurance of the primary information assets of our congregation.

Bob Osser
St. Paul’s United Church
Milton, Ontario, Canada