Dan has created a tutorial page for the Toolkit (see above)!  The first tutorial is one he recorded today, which provides a tour of this site, pointing out the features much as he does when teaching a class about the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness initiative.  Just click on the “Tutorials” page above, then click the link to the tutorial.  Dan will update the tutorial as events unfold or as seasons change and warrant new current awareness situations or as new resources become available.  Let us know what you think!

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.

To augment the current awareness facet of the toolkit, Dan has pulled in several RSS topical feeds, linking them here in the left menu bar (scroll down a bit…). Topics include: Emergency Preparedness in the News, News from the NLM’s Division of Specialized Information Services, FEMA News Releases, and Videos.

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

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.

I’ve just completed an update of our library’s Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan. (You can also find the plan, along with other sample plans, on the page above devoted to disaster plan templates and samples.) I think the organization is improved and more intuitive, there is clarification of the shelter-in-place procedures, and I added pictures, so that staff will readily recognize some of the places and features mentioned in the text. Some new sections: procedures for Active Shooter/Violent Incident, and a photo documentation of what our collection areas look like now, since we have just completed a major weeding/shifting project. I hope the new plan will be helpful, and please let me know if you have questions or comments about it.

It is good to see (via our statistics page) that visits to this toolkit are increasing weekly, and there are many “clicks” showing on the pages, such as Disaster Plan Templates/Samples and Service Continuity Planning.  Today we are adding a category called “Toolkit Tips,” which we’ll use to highlight new or already existing features of the toolkit.  We hope this will help everyone keep up with the continuing development of the toolkit, as well as uncover some buried treasure!

Tip #1:  Check out the new Google map that links to Library Disaster Stories.  It is located in two places in the toolkit:  in the left column, just past the photos and the Article Archives, and on the Library Disaster Stories page in the top menu bar.  Emily Vardell created the map, linking it to the stories, and worked with Dan to fine-tune its functionality on the toolkit.  Click on the “View Larger Map” link (below the image of the map on this page) to see the entire map, along with a list of the stories and links to them.  The symbols denote what type of disaster or incident is being described; i.e. hurricane, fire, earthquake, terrorism, flooding, tornado, and public health emergency.

We would like to continue adding to our Lessons Learned/Stories Told, so please let us know if you have a story to tell, and especially what you learned from the incident that might help other people prepare.  Contact Dan at danwilson@virginia.edu or Susan at syowell@virginia.edu.