An emergency can be as wide-scale as an earthquake or flash flood or as local as a burst pipe in the book stacks. Do you know how to ensure the continuation of your primary services and access to your primary resources in the event of an emergency at your library? Learn and share strategies for creating a service continuity plan during this 90-minute online class.

Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Time: 2:30-4 pm MT, 3:30-5pm CT
Instructor: Dan Wilson, Coordinator, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness Project

To participate via Adobe Connect go to: https://webmeeting.nih.gov/contplan/

Log in as Guest with your first and last name. There will be instructions for having the system call your phone.

If you have a phone with an extension or another reason it can’t call you, you can also call in manually at the number below. You can call in starting 15 minutes prior to the start of the teleconference. 1-866-846-3997 Passcode: 579437

If you have questions please contact Claire Hamasu chamasu@RML4.utah.edu or 1-800-338-7657 (1-800-DEV-ROKS)! /ch

Hurricane Ike, South Central Region Medical Libraries, Hurricane Web Links, and a New Listserv.

As many of you are aware, the South Central RML is currently closed, and will remain closed until Thursday, September 18^th, due to affects of Hurricane Ike. In accordance with the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response plan, South Central’s buddy RML, the Middle Atlantic Region (MAR), is backing up the office by taking calls and redirecting DOCLINE, when necessary. A special thanks to MAR staff for temporarily taking on this important responsibility.

For information on emergency preparedness planning for libraries as well as some post-disaster updates, see the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Toolkit at http://nnlm.gov/ep/. I am pleased to report that the toolkit received a lot of traffic the day before Hurricane Ike struck the Gulf Coast, which shows that libraries are using the toolkit as a preparedness resource. To see additional updates (or provide a status report), check the SCR blog, Blogadillo, at http://nnlm.gov/scr/blog/

Also of note, the National Library of Medicine home page has added a news item on hurricane resources, “Online Resources for Hurricanes, Floods, and Disaster Preparedness and Recovery” at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/disaster_resources_online.html

Finally, a new listserv, DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB, is now available as a discussion forum for librarians, information specialists and others interested in disaster information outreach to their communities and responding to information needs for all-hazards preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. It is also the primary source for information announcing the activities of the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project. List members may post comments and resources of interest to those involved in disaster information outreach as well as relevant announcements of meetings, training, conferences, job openings, etc.

The listserv is provided by the National Library of Medicine’s Disaster Information Management Research Center. You can sign up for the list and view the archives at https://list.nih.gov/archives/disastr-outreach-lib.html

Please contact Cindy Love, lovec@mail.nlm.nih.gov, if you have any questions or comments about the listserv.

http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2008/drillelempr.htm
Hospitals can now identify the most important strengths and weaknesses in their disaster response plans using a new tool from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). [posted on PHPartners http://phpartners.org/ - New Links for the week of Aug 22, 2008 [scb]

The Changing Face of Preparedness: Building and Sustaining Public Health Capacity for Disaster Response
February 18- 20
San Diego, CA

Help advance the field of public health preparedness by presenting your innovations and experiences at the nation’s largest gathering of public health preparedness and emergency management professionals. Showcase best practice training models, tools, and resources that illustrate proven results in building and sustaining public health preparedness at the local, state, or national level. Abstracts will be accepted for posters, roundtable discussions, interactive sessions, and 2-hour to full day workshops. Abstracts may be submitted until Sunday, August 31, 11:59 P.M. EDT. For more information about the Summit, including complete abstract submission instructions, visit http://www.phprep.org [posted on the Medical Reserve Corps Listserv] scb

The Federal Communications Commission’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has launched a Clearinghouse dedicated to the collection, evaluation and dissemination of public safety and healthcare communications information. http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/clearinghouse/index.html This site contains valuable information for healthcare providers. Topics include:

• Best Practices
• Case Studies/ Lessons Learned
• Communications Plans
• Continuity Plans
• Emergency Plans
• FAQs
• Federal Resources/ Grant Information
• Guidelines
• Handbooks
• Interoperability Plans
• Reference Materials

[posted on the Medical Reserve Corps listserv] scb

This collection of open access articles, which includes highlights for quick reference and a topic summary, reflects the arduous work of experts in animal disaster preparedness and response who have grappled with the central questions involved and offered their findings and recommendations within the covers of the AVMA scientific journals. Areas discussed include:

• the veterinarian’s role in preparedness and response;
• biosecurity and bioterrorism preparedness;
• search-and-rescue dogs; and
• preparedness and response policy.

Use this direct link: http://www.avma.org/avmacollections/disaster/default.asp

This is available for personal and scholarly use as single-copy downloads and links to the collection are encouraged, but articles should not be further reproduced or distributed at web sites other than that of the AVMA. [Thanks to Diane Fagan, Librarian at the American Veterinary Medical Association]

During this difficult time of flooding, tornados, and lots of rain don’t forget eXtension is a source of research-based information. Here are some topics covered on the sites:

Family caregiving disasters - <http://www.extension.org/category/family+caregiving+disaster+preparedness> Information on stress and decision making, safe sheltering of your home, things caregivers should know in a disaster.

Floods- <http://www.extension.org/category/floods%3A+clean-up+and+recovery>. Information on what to do when you enter the home for the first time,

Agro security- <http://www.extension.org/pages/Extension_Disaster_Education_Network_Agrosecurity> This includes information about animals, food safety, worker safety, assessing risks and much more. (bbj)

The National Resource Center on Advancing Emergency Preparedness for Culturally Diverse Communities is a joint initiative of the Drexel University School of Public Health’s Center for Health Equality and the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Minority Health.

The National Resource Center will serve as a central clearinghouse of resources and an exchange site to facilitate communication, networking and collaboration among key players working to build resilience and eliminate disparities for culturally diverse communities in emergencies. The site features hundreds of cross-referenced annotated resources in over 40 languages highlighting research, training and education opportunities, measurement and evaluation tools, effective risk communication strategies, and other successful programs and projects. http://www.diversitypreparedness.org/ [posted on CLAS-talk] scb

An emergency can be as wide-scale as a hurricane or as local as a burst pipe in the book stacks. Do you know how to ensure the continuation of your primary services and access to your primary resources in the event of an emergency at your library? Learn (and share) strategies during this 90 minute class. Dan Wilson, Coordinator, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness Project, will present a simple, relatively quick, approach to creating a service continuity plan. Dan Wilson is Associate Director for Collection Management and Access Services at University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library.

July 15, 8:00 - 9:30 MT, 9:00 - 10:30 CT Register: rml@library.med.nyu.edu

This workshop is sponsored by the NN/LM Middle Atlantic Region and will be using Adobe Connect. /ch

The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced today it is making $27.2 million available to state, local, tribal and territorial governments; national associations, non-profits, higher education institutions and the private sector as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 Competitive Training Grant Program (CTGP). This program awards funds to competitively selected applicants to develop and deliver innovative training programs addressing high priority national homeland security training needs. http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=43578 [posted on the Medical Reserve Corps listserv] scb