Library organizations around the world moved quickly after the January 2010 earthquake. The American Library Association raised funds at its Midwinter Meeting in Boston, created a relief fund for rebuilding the country's libraries and archives, and began coordinating with the Blue Shield committee, IFLA and UNESCO. Its Black Caucus opened a separate fund channelled to relief agencies.

Much of the account concerns the Digital Library of the Caribbean, run out of Florida International University, which launched an initiative aimed at the National Archives and the country's three biggest heritage libraries. The buildings were standing but damaged, one of them likely to be demolished, and staff asked first for gloves, masks, archival boxes and temporary help, with shelving, equipment and conservation work to follow. The National Library came through with its shelving and holdings shifted.