In July 2003 a special IFLA conference was held in Berlin, devoted to the preparedness of library collections in the face of'man made'disasters (conflict, war) and/or natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes). A panel of international experts discussed these issues and exchanged views. Papers focused on both national policy planning and on the institutional level, with an emphasis on what has been shown to work on the basis of practical experience in libraries and other sectors: In addition, case studies, on a worldwide scale, are presented. This book contains the proceedings of that conference.