Disaster risk identification and business continuity planning in community libraries in the North West Province in South Africa

Disasters affect access to community libraries that provide essential access to information for citizens in rural South Africa. The purpose of this research was to investigate the identification of disaster risk in community libraries in the Northwest Province in South Africa. Disasters in community libraries have been under-researched in Library and Information Science literature. Using a multi-method approach, data was collected from community libraries that are under the Northwest Department of Culture, Arts and Traditional Affairs (CATA). Participants were community librarians and librarian assistants employed by CATA. The response rate for the quantitative phase was 64% (70) and 100% (4) for the qualitative phase. The main results indicate that risk identification was considered the responsibility of their municipalities and that the CATA for community libraries was used to identify risks or conduct disaster planning. Therefore, risk identification is an area that has been largely neglected, with negative implications for business continuity planning.