Disaster planning focuses on future function and recovery, on helping libraries expeditiously return to their original states of operation. It all but ignores the concept of continuous function throughout a disaster. This is not true in the private and government sectors, however, which have managed to cover a wider load of disaster response preparedness through the implementation of what is referred to as business continuity planning, or BCP (also known as business systems continuity, business continuity management, business continuity and recovery, and continuity of operations). For these sectors, BCP sprang from basic cost-benefit analysis. More than just time and money are at risk when a business is forced to shut down in a disaster: the longer a business stays dark, the more likely its customers and vendors are to turn to local competitors. Worse still, temporary shutdowns too often take a permanent turn. According to the Institute for Business and Home Safety, 43 percent of all businesses involved in local disasters never reopen. That is why many in the private sector--especially those in information technology, insurance, finance, warehousing, and manufacturing--have opted for something more than the wherewithal to pick up the pieces after a disaster; they intend to keep afloat all the while. In its 2001-06 "U.S. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Focus Report", Gartner Dataquest concluded that upward of 30 percent of all U.S. businesses had inadequate or nonexistent continuity and disaster plans. U.S. libraries, the subject of a study by the Heritage Health Index, lag even farther behind. Seventy percent, says the report, do not even have a disaster plan in place. This explains why the concept of BCP has only recently entered the library lexicon (cost and scale are no small factors, either--Hewlett-Packard's expenditure of $100 million on "business continuity and recovery centers" sets an impossible precedent). But what if libraries were to appropriate the BCP concept, redefining it in a context they could afford to think about? This article discusses some cost-effective strategies (forging alliances with other libraries, depository consortiums, networking) that librarians should consider as they establish a disaster response and recovery plan. (Contains 8 resources.)