Survival Library After TSHTF

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The Survivalist book series by Jerry Ahern was one of my favorite reads as a teenager. My favorite part that I remember was a “shelter walk-thru”. You see – the main character had a hidden underground shelter that after the first several books – he finally makes it to. Upon entering – the book describes the contents of the shelter in great detail. One of the parts of the shelter that I remember most was the library. It contained many different types of books including thosethat could be used to teach his 2 young children. The idea behind the shelter was to have everything necessary to survive pretty much anything – and keep civilization going.

With this in mind – I am going to describe some things that I have put together as far as a “survival library” as well as additional plans I have.

First – the purpose: The purpose of my library/information system is to secure valuable information that can be referenced after a TSHTF situation – whatever it may be.

Second – materials needed/used: Electronic information systems such as the iPod Touch, tablet PC, Kindle, and of course the laptop computer can store massive amounts of information of various types. The media can range from pictures (maps, directions, reference charts), books/manuals/guides in PDF format, as well as full motion video. Although the grid may very well be down after TSHTF – all of these electronic devices require very little power and should be satisfied with almost any backup power source.

Additionally – regular paper books should be stored in the event that electronic media becomes inoperable.

Third – Content:As I described initially -electronic media is a major component of my information preps. However – I am going to describe paper-based media first.

Paper Media:

Good old fashion books should be the mainstay of my preparedness library. They are not – at least not yet.

Right now I have a large collection of magazines such as Mothers Earth News, Urban Farm, and GROW. I purchase a decent number of magazines related to gardening. I save all my back issues as many of these issues provide some great reference material related to homesteading and gardening.

I have a few survival & preparedness books right now. Most of them primarily involved with pre-TSHTF preparation. I need to obtain more “reference”-type books – on things like plant identification, first aid, primitive shelter construction, and so on.

Right now – here is a picture of most of my “survival” books:

Here is a list of books that I plan to purchase (with links built in so you can get more info):

Electronic Media:

Due to the storage capability of electronic media devices – I have incorporated a massive amount of survival & preparedness digital articles, books and video’s into my preparedness information system.

Right now my primary device for accessing this information is a laptop computer – which I have two (redundancy). My data is spread out among several media storage devices such as USB flash drives, external hard drives, CD’s and DVD’s. All data is duplicated and backed up among several storage devices - just in case.

Right now – I am in the process of trying to organize all of this information. I have it broken up into the following categories:

General Survival
Gardening
Food Storage
First Aid/Medical Books/Manuals
Civil Defense
EMP
Bugging Out/Evacuation
Hunting/Fishing
Movies – Entertainment
Nuclear, Biological & Chemical
Terrorism
Weapons

I have approx 12 gigabytes of this information organized. In addition to that I have another 60 gigabytes that needs to be gone through. By the way – much of this organized information in available right here – located in the Survival Downloads Section.

Information is organized in different USB flash drives. These vary from 1 GB’s to 16 GB’s. Each flash drive generally is category specific to allow for faster access.

I have washed several flash drives by leaving them in a pants pocket – and all have continued to work just fine. These things are very durable.

Here are a a couple examples of books available in my library – Where There is no Dentist (top) and US Army Rangers Manual (bottom)

One other awesome resource that will likely go down after TSHTF is the Internet. Well – I backup several large websites so they can be accessible offline. I have written about this before.

The above is what I have right now. My preparedness library is far from complete. Planned possible addition to my electronic media capability include the following:

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6″ Display - this thing is cool. A high quality book reader – I really want one of these as it is very easy to download the books I want at a cheaper price than buying the paper version. Another method of storing, retaining and backing up information.

Apple iPad Tablet (16GB, Wifi)- an awesome device that I want to use to store many of my PDF files on. It is on the expensive side right now – as for the same amount of money I could buy a couple of Netbooks. My prioritize will not allow me to purchase one of these – but if you already have one – great for storing pdf’s.

Summary: Information after TSHTF will be important. I am trying to increase my skills and knowledge now to better prepare myself and not be as reliant on “books”.

Take care all -

Rourke

Tags: survival information

Information, Supplies, Survival & Preparedness | Rourke December 6, 2010

13 Comments to “Survival Library After TSHTF”

By Ollamha Anne, December 6, 2010 @ 2:00 am

I too have a large library of material, with the same sort of focus: Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening, for example in magazines; about 80 books related to gardening, homesteading, butchering, etc., and 12.5 gigs of digital media organized after the Library of Congress categories on my computer. In addition to more modern books, I also have a vast collection of books drawn from archive.com by them that did during the days when that was the only way to do. I have a digital reader which takes microSD cards and have backed up a great deal of material on them. I’m looking for a small, reliable and inexpensive solar charger for the unit. It’s surprisingly time-consuming organizing and backing up material.
By CM, December 6, 2010 @ 4:37 am

I make sure to have physical copies of everything I can. Though I don’t think it is likely, I do think that even a small possibility of electrical system failure, or, heaven forbid, theft of computers / hardware by government, damage by virus / or whatever makes the hardcopy of at least most of what I have somewhat able to be available.

USB thumb drives are small and can be hidden easily. CD/DVD’s do have a rated lifetime, and technology may make them obsolete in as little as a decade, but they are resistant to a lot, and you can have multiple copies as well. And while it isn’t likely that possession of information is going to be a crime, you never know.

I have shelves full of books, as well, and if I haven’t read them cover to cover, I have at least thumbed through them and read bits and pieces of them.

I do make the effort to try everything I read. It does no good to read about making fire using different methods, and not actually try it until you are successful. (The hand drill method makes some really tender blisters after a bit of time – not a method I like, but it does work). We put a lot of effort into the garden, and this is something I recommend everyone does, every year. It really takes a lot of effort, time, patience, weeding, watering, etc. to be successful at getting food out of your garden. It takes actual time and practice to be good at anything.

Don’t just collect info – put it to use, as much as you can. Now is as good a time as any. Whatever you can do is something you don’t have to rely on someone else for. Know how to clean and maintain your guns, tools, water supply, clothes, anything and everything.

Information is good. Knowledge is better. Experience is best.
By Rudy Kearney, December 6, 2010 @ 7:07 am

Finally, someone else who has a massive digital archive like I do! I’m pushing 200 GB of various digitized material. I digitize just about everything I have, just in case.

I finally broke down and bought the latest Kindle. I’m loving it. It’s the perfect survival library. It can hold a TON of good stuff, and views PDF files nicely.

I’ll be buying several of these. They fit perfectly into an ammo can with a small solar flexible solar panel. And with their battery life, it’s a no brainer portable survival library. These things will run for a month without charging. Think about that…
By casey, December 6, 2010 @ 2:07 pm

i have been gathering my libary, as of now i have 5 books some of the same you have pictured, and 10 3 ring binders of printed material. i have been comtiplating the flash drives but if everything goes down what would you be able to plug it into? just a thought.
By Rourke, December 6, 2010 @ 3:25 pm

I think printed material is critical compared to digital. You are right – if the grid goes down then it will be more difficult to access digital files. Batteries, solar power, generators, and inverters would be required to produce power.

Rourke
By Rourke, December 6, 2010 @ 3:43 pm

How does the Kindle handle graphics from the PDF’s? For the price they seem like a decent deal.

Rourke
By Rourke, December 6, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

CM –

Good points –

Thanks – Rourke
By Leah, December 6, 2010 @ 9:50 pm

I print up all files from the internet that I think are worth saving. Some are put into three ring binders and others are bound as individual books. I also save them on my two external hard drives at least once a month. An electronic reader would be great if you could download these into it as well.
By carl, December 6, 2010 @ 10:01 pm

I know I will somehow anger someone with this, but I have also put aside history books that were written before about 1966. They are for the most part without politically correct and revisionist slants. I think it is important that we preserve the truth for the future as well as ourselves.
By Don, December 7, 2010 @ 2:56 pm

Great points I have been collecting my survival/entertainment kibrary for years. In addition to around 50 survival related books and videos. have downloaded and stored to disc several thousand pages of great info. In addition to that Like jerry ahern ( I have most of the books on CD) I have a educational library both in book form as well as in audio book ( cd ) form I HAVE SOME 3,000 books on subjects from history, science, and othe educational/ instructional titles to books in fiction including William johnstones ashes series and westerns. I also have a large CD ( around 2,000) collection in several genre’s of music, and some 1,000 DVD’s in several genre’s and am adding more each week. Best case scenerio we have entertainment if we get snowed in or something, ( we also have 3 generators for power) worse case scenerio we can contribute to the educatio of future generations post SHTF.
By Rourke, December 7, 2010 @ 6:32 pm

Don –

That is one impressive collection of info!

Rourke
By jim, December 8, 2010 @ 2:45 pm

The only thing I worry about with having a huge digital collection would be an EMP. Guess it would be easy enough to build a faraday cage though.
By Rudy Kearney, December 8, 2010 @ 6:43 pm

Rourke-

Handles PDFs pretty good. Let me take some pictures and see how they turn out. Give me a day or three!

Jim-

Ammo can, perhaps with some copper mesh between lid and can, will do you nicely there. Since the Kindle fits into a can nicely with a solar panel, that’s a great solution. Add in a thumb drive or three and you’re looking good…

I realized that I actually have a relevant article called ‘Your Survival Library Will Get You Killed’ … check it out here to see more of my thoughts on this topic: http://preparingyourfamily.com/your-survival-library-will-get-you-killed/