New template available for “10 Steps” Planning
In the interest of helping NN/LM members to put together a concrete plan based on the “10 Steps to Service Continuity” training, I’ve created a template that members can use to draw up a basic plan for their libraries or information centers. It is attached to the “10 Steps to Service Continuity” page here on the toolkit (see the menu bar above) as a Word document. Anyone is welcome to download it and customize it at they see fit. I hope it will serve as a good starting point for us in trying to meet our goal of having plans in place, and that it will be especially helpful to smaller libraries, hospital libraries, or other entities who may not need a comprehensive disaster plan.
The template is designed to focus on service continuity, but it does include space for some personal safety and preservation information. My goal was to keep the template on standard size paper (8 1/2 x 11), so that nothing special would be required for printing. I introduced the template to the Tidewater Health Sciences Librarians group two weeks ago, and in discussing it, we realized that the template would be a good thing to complete, print and post in our work areas, especially in smaller libraries that are minimally staffed, or staffed part-time by volunteers who would profit by having the information close by in an emergency.
The 10 Steps template is an addition to the other ones available here and elsewhere, such as PReP, dPlan, and the customized PReP developed by Julie Page and Deborah Halsted (see the Disaster Plan Templates page, menu above), and isn’t intended to replace any of them. Rather, it is intended to provide another option, given that no two institutions are alike, and needs for emergency planning vary accordingly. One of this year’s initiatives for NN/LM will be to focus on best ways to help hospital libraries, and we hope that the 10 Steps template will be a good start.
