UWS works to replace, value lost collection

Last June, a once-in-a-century-sized flood damaged 200,000 books and documents at the University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Jim Dan Hill Library. Now, campus officials are trying to figure out how to replace the collection.

They’ve added 5,000 print books and 200,000 e-books since the flood. They’ve had only limited success to save the warped books by freeze-drying them.

Almost a century of ruined school newspapers and yearbooks have been digitized.

Now, UWS Chancellor Renee Wachter says they’re trying to rebuild their print collection.

“And that’s been a very interesting process,” Wachter said. “You know, you have all these books and you assume you know what they’re worth until they’re actually gone. Then you try to place an assessment on them. It’s been very interesting working with other libraries throughout the country and the UW System, to talk about how do you assess the value of a book?”

For instance, they’ve discovered that math and science books are more valuable than a Dickens novel.

“It was kind of funny. We found one that was the history of Wisconsin that was dated around the turn of the (20th) century. How do you value that?” Wachter said.

But they’ll have to find that value, and hope the insurance company agrees.

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