Michelle Malizia, Associate Director of the South Central Region/NN/LM, has pointed out that 1-800-DEV-ROKS does not translate to some smartphones (see Blackberry example below), as these phones do not have the traditional numerical/alphabetical arrangement, ie, 2 (ABC), 3 (DEF), 4 (GHI), ….

If you have one of these phones, it would probably behoove you to store the RML number (1-800-338-7657) in your phone’s contact list. If you’d rather memorize the number, here is a memorization strategy. Please use the comment feature on this posting to suggest others.

1-800-338-7657

First, memorize 1-800 (that’s easy enough)

Then either memorize 338, or find a meaning for March of 1938 (3/38). For instance, in March of 1938 oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia.

As for 7657, how about the year of our country’s bicentennial plus the number of days in a work week and the number of days in a regular week?  Or, 7, 6, 5 … and back to 7.

1-800-338-7657 Got it?

Yesterday, Dan and I presented a workshop on the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan, including an overview of the plan and training in the “10 Steps to Service Continuity” to the Tidewater Health Sciences Librarians (THSL).  The group that gathered at the Health Sciences Library at Riverside School of Health Careers in Newport News, VA, was very interactive, sharing difficulties experienced in the past and asking some great questions about how to be best prepared for possible future emergencies.  Since their area of the state is in the floodplain for storm surge and wind damage from hurricanes, as well being exposed to other risks, they have good reason to focus on service continuity to their patrons.  See a picture of the group in the Picture Gallery here on the Toolkit.

Click here to see a page that gives an excellent explanation of what a table-top exercise is, and how to create and run one.  The author is Joe Olivo, of Strohl Consulting Services.  Joe is a Certified Business Continuity Planner, and while the page notes that he has consulted with financial institutions, law firms, and businesses, I think that his advice can be easily adapted for just about any type of institution, including libraries large and small.  It’s a good example of providing information that is general enough to be adapted, while specific enough to be helpful. 

I particularly like this part:  “Based upon the effectiveness of the pre-exercise meetings, the exercise will almost run by itself with team members knowing what has to be accomplished. Exercising is a primary means of training. In any actual recovery effort, the best team members are usually those who have participated in exercises.”

We are beginning monthly training sessions here at UVa’s HSL with staff who are responsible for emergency response, using a table-top exercise each month for a different scenario.  The first scenario was an epidemic of influenza, in which the library’s staffing was compromised.  We talked through how the library would be opened, how to determine if it should stay open, how core services would be maintained, how patrons would be notified if necessary.  We were able to address questions about communication and availablility of various resources, among others, and found the exercise to be quite helpful.  Our staff enjoyed working through the scenario, and felt better prepared to respond afterward.

Dan also used table-top exercises in training sessions for NN/LM’s RML staff and emergency response coordinators this year, and the exercises were very effective in helping everyone understand their roles and how the established plan would be implemented across a given scenario and by the various “players.”  Many thanks to Joe Olivo and Strohl for making this information available in such an accessible format.

Those of us who viewed the MLA Fall webcast this week saw Julie Page showing a version of the Pocket Response Plan (PReP) from the Council of State Archivists that she and Deborah Halsted have customized for use by health sciences libraries.  Click on the link below  to access the form from the toolkit, and the form will also be added to the toolkit page, “Disaster Plan Templates/Samples.”

PReP form for HSLs

Michelle Malizia, Associate Director of NN/LM’s South Central Region (SCR), has sent some updates about how they have been promoting NN/LM’s Emergency Preparedness & Response plan in her region–thanks, Michelle!

• Michelle made two formal presentations on the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response plan at the South Central Chapter/MLA annual meeting recently
• SCR was also an exhibitor at the meeting, and their giveaway was a first-aid kit imprinted with the NN/LM logo and the URL for the EP&R toolkit (watch for a picture to be posted in the Picture Gallery)
• SCR’s booth was staffed by library school students from the region, who enjoyed giving “tours” of the toolkit site to meeting attendees

Michelle noted that their exhibit was received enthusiastically by the attendees, and they found that most of them had not seen the site or heard about it before, so it was an excellent opportunity to get the word out about NN/LM’s plan and services available in emergency preparedness. Also of note, several members of SCR’s Emergency Preparedness Planning Committee, which consists of a member from each state in the region, are presenters in next week’s MLA webcast (November 12), “Survival Tips and Stories: Expanding Library Service in Times of Disaster.”

• Marty Thompson, Director of the Robert M. Bird Health Sciences Library at the University of Oklahoma
• Ethel Madden, Director, Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans
• Deborah Halsted, Associate Director, Houston Academy of Medicine/Texas Medical Center

The South Central Region experienced opportunities to practice their emergency preparedness strategies this year, as they were directly in the path of Hurricane Ike, which came ashore at Galveston and moved inland over Houston. We look forward to hearing from all these actively involved emergency preparedness experts next week on the webcast.

Many thanks to Gail Kouame, Consumer Health Coordinator and lead Emergency Preparedness person for the Pacific Northwest Region (PNR) of NN/LM for the updates about what’s going on there in terms of promoting the NN/LM plan!

• PNR had developed an Emergency Preparedness page on the region’s NN/LM site some time ago, (located at http://nnlm.gov/pnr/services/emergency_preparedness.html.) It is still being updated, and has worked well for their region, while being adapted by others as well.
• Gail attended the “Connecting to Collections” conference for Washington State recently. It is a grant- funded initiative that includes collaborative disaster planning among cultural institutions (libraries, museums, tribal centers, etc.) Gail says she was the only medical librarian in the room, so we are happy to have been so well-represented!
• institutions in Alaska and Oregon are also applying for funding to organize similar initiatives
• Gail convened a meeting of 4 of the region’s 5 state coordinators in the EP&RP on October 22, 2008 as their “kick off” meeting. This meeting followed a teleconference earlier in the year.
• the state coordinators have devised a “talking points” list for use in promoting the plan in their states (contact Gail for more info if you’re interested)
• Gail provided each of the state coordinators with one of the Salvage Wheels from Heritage Preservation (see the “Ready Reference” page on the toolkit), and made sure they knew how to order more if needed
• all the states in PNR are signed up for the MLA webcast on November 12, “Survival Tips and Stories,” and there are plans to purchase DVDs for future use within the states. The host sites are also planning to build in some discussion time around the webcast.
• state coordinators will begin doing phone consultations about the plan soon, using the talking points developed by the group
• Gail will be creating an emergency preparedness “column” in the region’s newsletter, Dragonfly, featuring “guest bloggers” recruited from her state coordinators’ group
• Gail will re-convene the state coordinators in February to follow-up and assess progress

Great work, Gail and PNR state coordinators!

I’ve re-titled the Toolkit page that was called “First Aid Kit.”  The page is now called “Ready Reference.”  While the page can still function as “First Aid” for those of us coordinating emergency responses, it needed a new name in order to keep internet searchers from finding the NN/LM EP & R Toolkit when they wanted to find boxes with band-aids and alcohol swabs in them.  I also enhanced the Ready Reference page a bit, adding the full text of the NN/LM EP&R Plan and the flowcharts for preparedness and response, and will be on the lookout for other key items for preparedness and response.  In fact, the Ready Reference page is, in essence, a toolkit within the toolkit.

We’ve heard from Ruth Holst and Jacqueline Leskovec at the Greater Midwest Region (GMR) NN/LM office about their activities in promoting NN/LM’s EP&R Plan recently, and they have been busy and creative! The GMR has an active Emergency Preparedness Working Group, composed of librarians, both academic and hospital, from each state in their region. For the EP Working Group, they have developed a role statement for the Regional Coordinators which spells out responsibilities and procedures for them to use in the event of a disaster in their states. The EP Working Group is also creating a checklist of questions that NN/LM RML staff can use when a call comes in from a member reporting an emergency or disaster, in order to ensure consistency of information obtained. GMR is also investigating online class options for use in enhancing training for their Regional Coordinators.

To promote the plan, the GMR sponsored an excellent poster featuring the various components of the plan. It was presented at the recent Midwest Chapter/MLA meeting in Troy, Michigan by Maryann Mlodzik, Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio and Barbara Platts, Munson Healthcare, Traverse City, MI, both of whom are their states’ representatives on the GMR EP Working Group (see a photo of Maryann, Barb and the poster in the Picture Gallery). Ruth’s office made several copies of the poster so that the GMR can loan them out to librarians who want to exhibit them at state and local meetings.

GMR Staff member Holly Burt and Working Group member Pat Hamilton spearheaded the group’s efforts to create two tri-fold handouts; one featuring preparedness activities and one for response procedures as outlined in the NN/LM plan. The handouts do a great job of succinctly presenting the NN/LM plan, and will no doubt be very helpful to the members in their region.

Linda Walton, Director, Hardin Library for the Health Sciences at University of Iowa, and also a member of the GMR’s EP Working Group, presented the NN/LM plan to the health science librarians’ subgroup at the Iowa Library Association’s annual meeting in Dubuque (October 15-17, 2008).

It’s exciting to see the promotion of NN/LM’s Emergency Preparedness & Response plan unfold across the country–many thanks to Ruth and Jacqueline for the updates!

As flu season approaches, please keep in mind that the CDC has a plethora of resources about the flu and pandemics. Click on the image below to see the latest weekly influenza surveillance map.

Boston University’s online newspaper contains an article today about how the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX weathered Hurricane Ike with flying colors, despite the beating taken by the island as a result of the storm. There is a really interesting account from their associate director of research, who said that “the positive outcome was no stroke of luck, but the result of wise engineering and a comprehensive emergency plan that includes a long-term weather-tracking strategy.” She also noted that “preparedness is attainable, and it works.”

At the University of Hawaii, roof repair work led to some major water leaking into their library. The account in the “Star Bulletin” today underlines how a quick response, based on excellent preparedness activities, can minimize damage and speed recovery. Based on their experiences with major flooding in 2004, the library has a well-developed disaster response team, who was actively watching for damage from the heavy rains, had the needed supplies on hand, knew what to do with wet materials and where to put them, and had a salvage company on site quickly to restore air quality and help with cleanup.

News reports of flooding:

KHON TV

KHNL TV

It’s nice to hear that preparedness efforts really do pay off–a huge return on a relatively small investment!