On June 9th, as the flood waters were rushing into Waverly, the Waverly City Hall was evacuated and all employees were moved to a temporary disaster command post at Waverly Public Library. Due to this move, WPL was inundated with both city employees and those seeking information about flooding and recovery assistance. Knowing that the WPL didn't have as many public access computers, Vogel Library staff decided to provide assistance by staying open later in the evening and to open on the first weekend after the flood to allow public users computer access to check in with relatives, print pictures or apply for government assistance. The collaboration didn't stop there. Vogel Librarian, Kim Babcock Mashek, decided that the flood information the city was providing needed to be organized more efficiently and easily accessible via the Internet, and used her Web 2.0 skills to create a flood wiki along with assistance from the WPL. The wiki has been a great one-stop information portal for many in the city and has helped the WPL field flood-related reference questions. The wiki is currently updated by Kim and also Sarah Meyer-Reyerson, the director of WPL. Both will continue to post updates until the end of August, and at that point they hope that a city employee will begin to update the wiki regularly. The wiki can be viewed at http://waverlyflood2008.wikidot.com.
Submitted by Kim Babcock Mashek, Wartburg College