Shortly afterwards, I did open the library in New Orleans so that patients, family members, and employees had access to computers. FEMA and Red Cross Representatives also were stationed in our library to assist. Our Library Staff managed and advertised for these groups.

Librarians naturally can organize and understand the needs of their institution. In the case of a disaster, librarians should be willing to do ANYTHING - even serving food in the cafeteria.

University Libraries (UL) personnel safely evacuated the entire facility within minutes. Three stations of the Albuquerque Fire Department, UNM Campus Police, and other key response personnel were immediately dispatched to the library. Key members of the University Libraries Disaster Recovery Assistance Team (D.R.A.T.) were also immediately called. The Associate Dean, Fran Wilkinson, and the Facilities Manager, Ed Padilla, were onsite within an hour after the fire started and provided critical information to the Fire Marshal, Campus Police, UNM’s Physical Plant and Safety and Risk Services. These two DRAT members remained on site the entire night monitoring the situation, reviewing pertinent parts of the UL’s disaster preparedness plan, and preparing an outline of the actions needed in the coming days and weeks. The Associate Dean notified members of Libraries’ D.R.A.T. and activated the phone tree to notify other essential personnel. The first D.R.A.T. meeting was called for 8:00 a.m. the next morning.

The D.R.A.T. meeting resulted in immediate plans to redeploy the 100 plus employees who normally work in Zimmerman Library including faculty/librarians, support staff, administration, and student employees. A fire recovery command center was established in a branch library (Centennial Science & Engineering Library) and all efforts were coordinated from there. Services to students and faculty were fully coordinated including:

• Reference service stations were set up in the Student Union building and the Student Services building with full electronic access to information services through the use of laptops and cell phones (first day after the fire).
• Notification to students and faculty about the closure of Zimmerman and where to find alternative services was sent through several internal electronic and print methods.
• Information stations/tents at both entrances to Zimmerman Library were staffed to answer questions and direct customers to alternative service sites.
• UL InterLibrary Loan department set up temporary offices and began providing access to books and journals normally located in Zimmerman.
• Online book paging system was set up that gave access to collections not unduly affected by smoke damage with a 24-hour turn around time.

Over the next few weeks, all journals, microforms, and newspapers located in Zimmerman Library were removed by the company hired to manage this aspect of the damage (BMS-CAT). Those collections remain in Ft. Worth, Texas undergoing remediation services (They are expected to be returned during the Fall 2007 semester. The reconstructed basement is scheduled to reopen in early in the Spring 2008 semester.)

Unusual Roles

The role and responsibilities of every UL employee were impacted by the fire in some way whether specifically involved in the recovery or by adding to an employee’s overall volume of work. All provided information about the fire and directed our customers to the alternative services in place. Many stepped in to staff the reference desks around campus. Our IT offices were located in the basement but fortunately, all servers were located off-site in the campus-wide IT facility, so no loss of data or access to online catalogs or websites were experienced. The library IT staff quickly began working to install new desktop and laptop computers for all displaced employees and for the temporary public services information desks. Our accountants processed the first payroll after the fire on time in spite of having to process it manually in a temporary location. Staff and students volunteered for the book paging system. This required them to wear hard hats and masks, working only two hours at a time on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors of the building to avoid excessive exposure to smoke damaged areas. A few key employees were called upon to coordinate the difficult job of sifting through the thousands of bound journals that were not completely burned to determine which were still salvageable - a job that required a hard hat, a respirator, and boots! Facilities staff also assisted with the removal of all journals, microforms, cabinets, shelving, equipment, and furnishings in the basement. All of the employees who normally work in Zimmerman worked in unfamiliar environments as they relocated in one of the other branch libraries, often at make-shift desks and shared computers. The employees who do not work in Zimmerman shifted their work spaces to make room for these redeployed employees - and always with grace and humor. We should add that approximately one-third (about 50 individuals) of all the displaced employees still have still not returned to their normal work environments as the rebuild of their spaces is currently underway. We anticipate their return in late 2007.

An unusual aspect to the recovery was that Zimmerman Library’s alarm system was only partially functional after the fire. The Fire Marshall permitted reoccupation of the building, but only if a manual “fire watch” was deployed until the alarm services were fully operational again. This involved scheduling individuals to patrol all areas of the building during our hours of operation. The fire watch squads were outfitted with hard hats and air horns and were tasked with alerting the building’s occupants at any sign of fire. UL employees were called upon to provide fire watch duty of up to five hours per week. More than three months later, fire watch duties were turned over to a security agency.

The basement area that burned will be fitted with a new compact shelving system thanks to funding provided by the state legislature and UNM’s administration, dramatically increasing needed collection space. Our collection losses also allowed for some creative thinking on the part of faculty in the various departments whose collections were affected. These scholars and researchers will provide input regarding which of the lost bound journals can be replaced electronically and which can be stored remotely, again, saving much needed space.

A fire loss of this magnitude also brings out the best in a library’s established contributors, the community at large, and other library professionals. We experienced an outpouring of help from each of these groups and have established relationships that will continue to grow.

Several minutes passed before my phone started ringing and friends in New York were calling to ask me what was going on in Oklahoma City. Not having turned on the TV I was unaware of what they were referring to. I rolled one of our TV’s into the lobby of the library, turned it on and saw for the first time the carnage of what ended up being a terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. At first, the reports were “there has been some sort of explosion downtown.” Perhaps it was a gas explosion. The thought of a terrorist bomb was not mentioned for nearly half an hour. The library, being at the physical center of the campus was a hub for the students to gather and watch the story unfold. Our staff brought in extra chairs as more and more students came by to see what was going on. The immediate thought on everyone’s mind was what we can do to help.

When the dust and debris cleared 168 people, including 19 children were killed and hundreds more seriously injured. Out of the rubble a plan for a multi-component memorial was established. The memorial was to consist of a remembrance component an educational component and a research component. It was the dream of the family members and survivors that the research component have a library and information center as the “living memorial” to their loved ones. Thus the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism was founded. An act of Congress was passed and appropriation made to begin development of the “premier source of terrorism information sharing among federal, state and local agencies.”

As the steering committee for the development of the Institute and Library began their work, it became clear the emergency response community would need to be actively involved in creating this new resource of information. As a volunteer for the Memorial Archive, I was invited to be on the steering committee for the development of the Institute’s information center and library. Though not apparent at the time, the need for information professionals, both librarians and archivists was a necessity. Thousands of cards, letters and artifacts were mailed to the bomb site along with thousands more being left at the scene on a daily basis. Archiving and preserving this information was the foundation of what later became the Memorial Museum. Many of the documents collected early on became the basis of the future Lessons Learned Information Sharing, (LLIS) the official lessons learned site for the Department of Homeland Security. Final reports, after action reports, studies, etc. from numerous agencies were collected with the hope of assisting other communities in preparation dealing with a similar mass casualty event. Reports and studies following a variety of terrorist incidents and natural disasters make up the LLIS database.

Fire and law enforcement professionals were brought to the table to assist in the establishment of key databases that would help these groups prepare and perhaps prevent future acts of terrorism. The Responder Knowledge Base (RKB) was created to assist the emergency response community know what protective clothing and equipment is available and whether or not it meets standards and who certified the equipment against the standards. The RKB also informs the emergency response community if grant money is available in order for them to make application.

The MIPT Terrorism Information Center and Library (TIC) is a wealth of information not only for the emergency response community but for academics, policy makers, and the public at large. Thousands of documents have been added to the TIC along with nearly 3,000 book titles easily available for checkout. Information on the topic of terrorism seems to be endless and the need to collect, organize and disseminate that information is essential for eliminating this scourge from the world. The services that libraries and librarians have traditionally provided remain very important.

When you are dealing with just plain survival the “extras” can seem small. The first place the hospital went the night of the tornado was to First Baptist Church where first aid was set up. We operated there until we got some tents from FEMA. From the tents we have moved to some FEMA/GEMA modular buildings and are just starting the building of the 70 or minus bed interim hospital. It is an unbelievable story and it goes on day after day after day. There is almost no way to describe it.

While the Illinois Fire Service Institute Library has not been directly involved in disaster planning, response, or recovery efforts, the IFSI Library directly supports the training, education, and research efforts of the Illinois Fire Service Institute, the state fire academy on the University of Illinois campus. In terms of the scope of training, IFSI held more than 1,300 courses attended by more than 48,000 first responders at 375 locations in 100 counties throughout Illinois between July 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006. During that same period, the IFSI Library had more than 4,000 reference transactions, many related to the training efforts aimed at the first responders.

By providing information resources to first responders throughout Illinois, librarians at the Illinois Fire Service Institute are part of a chain of individuals (including curriculum developers, instructional support, and instructors) who indirectly contribute to disaster planning, response, and recovery efforts (Adam Groves, IFSI Archivist and Metadata Librarian).

Their research findings demonstrate the vital and integrated roles libraries can play in their organizations and the direct impact on training, research and emergency response with information services to meet users’ changing needs (Lian Ruan).

The IFSI Library has received nine LSTA (Library Service and Technology Act) grant awards in the past ten years to improve its services, collection and technology infrastructure to serve Illinois firefighters and emergency responders. The most recent grant project is entitled “In Memory of Our Heroes: Developing a Digital Image Collection of Illinois Firefighter Line of Duty Deaths (IFLODD)” (http://www.fsi.uiuc.edu/content/library/IFLODD/). It aims to collect, organize, digitize, preserve, and provide access to historical and cultural materials that document the ultimate sacrifice of more than 700 Illinois firefighters over the past 150 years.

It digitizes photographs, newspapers, fire station logbooks, and other resources that detail these tragedies for inclusion in an online database. It provide access to this history memorializes the firefighters to increase awareness of firefighters’ sacrifice

It supplies contemporary firefighters with valuable “lessons learned” from the various deaths to enhance the educational endeavors of firefighters and help prevent future tragedies. It helps build new relationships with historical societies and fire museums

(Lian Ruan). A new library building is under planning to support the library’s further development and further IFSI mission to help Illinois firefighters and emergency responders.

Libraries can be of help in disaster planning by creating pathfinders to related resources, such as the Resource Guide for Public Health Preparedness (http://www.phpreparedness.info/index.php) created by New York Academy of Medicine, or the Bioterrorism Resources pathfinder (http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/lhsu/resources/Bioterrorism.shtml) created by the Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois-Urbana (Diane Richardson, IFSI Reference and User Training Librarian).

Also, librarians can play a role by acquainting themselves with special libraries that have emergency response collections and by familiarizing themselves with the resources these libraries make available to those involved in emergency management. Such collections may not be fully represented at OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) so extra effort is sometimes necessary to locate individual items. Facilitating access by local patrons to these collections through interlibrary loan is important service libraries can perform (Diane Richardson, IFSI Reference and User Training Librarian).

When a disaster happens, libraries can provide computer access and contact information for disaster relief agencies and for local organizations and governmental entities that may be involved in recovery (Diane Richardson, IFSI Reference and User Training Librarian).

It is difficult to describe the unceasing labor that was necessary of so many but especially of someone like me as the dean of the library — my shoulder was to the wheel for years — the amount of effort, strategy, and work night and day is indescribable. I am sure it took years off my life.

I had a two pronged approach — first try to provide library service in any way that we could (because our President determined that we would start the semester on time no matter what) and then focus on restoring the building — the latter was very challenging because of the damage. The former very challenging because we had no library. The students and faculty voted for the library to be the number one building restored on campus. It really is impossible to run a university without a library.

I think the changes would have come in time anyway. However, most of our librarians and staff now were not here during the earthquake so the corporate memory of the event is slowly eroding. This was one reason why I wrote the Library Journal article so that somewhere our experience was recorded and with the urgency and voice of yesterday.

I think in looking back that we do need to recognize post-traumatic stress more - it is far more powerful than people think. I think the campus started back too early; people should have been given time to get their homes and families in order. I do agree with the importance of starting that semester because people were terrified they would also lose their jobs. It was some months before we needed all of our staff, so they went to serve in any area they could, most especially in the Information Trailer (unfortunately with the name and number, “Trailer 666″). People were so happy to hear a live voice and someone who could actually help them.

Personally, my first priority was helping our staff members cope with the grief. Every staff member had a different situation as a result of the disaster. I had to treat them all as individuals and handle each of them appropriately. Only when the library staff members were able to move forward did we re-focus on the health professional community. We were very lucky as no one on our staff was directly involved. But we all knew families that were. Some staff found it very difficult to pull certain library materials (psychiatry and pathology). I believe that it was harder on the paraprofessionals than on the professional staff. The professional staff members were wonderful; they did everything possible to serve our community. Our reference staff acted very professionally and they were able to deal with any question. For the most part, the paraprofessional staff was shielded from medical cases.

But, everyone needed to find a way to deal with the constant reminders of this terrible event. The State Medical Examiner’s office is only one block from the library. Of course, all of the bodies went there. The building was roped off for a long time and our staff had to see it every time they came to work. I didn’t think beforehand about how this would affect them, but it was terribly upsetting. I had to suggest to some people that they take another route to work. It wasn’t obvious to some people that they had to change their regular routine in order to deal with the stress and the emotional impact.

Support came from everywhere. We received many calls from other libraries. They asked if we needed help with ILL (interlibrary loan). Vendors called to offer support. From just a few comments, they started to send us pathology and psychiatry resources. They suggested databases that might be turned on for a period of time. Everyone wanted to help; and I swiftly came to realize just how small and tightly knit the library community was. The headquarters for the Metropolitan Library System was only four blocks south of the explosion. Technically speaking, they were “inside the yellow tape,” for several days. The force of the explosion blew out all of their windows. As much as possible, we tried to support them and to solicit help on their behalf.

We had a strong desire to do more, but the reality was different. People will tell you to find your niche and fill in. But, it is a hard prospect. We tried to help everyday. But when disasters are happening; it is all about first responders. What we discovered was that our primary role was in the aftermath. The pathology department at the university became involved and we supported them through reference, literature searches, etc… The psychiatry department also was very active dealing with the aftermath of the disaster. The work that was done after the attack turned into numerous research projects. The university departments became first-hand experts with valuable knowledge for communities that had suffered due to terrorist attacks. Our people have been around the world helping others and the library has always been involved with supporting these efforts.

From a grant offered by the CDC, the Southwest Center for Preparedness was opened and is now located on the university campus. We have done a lot of direct training for the center.

The attack changed research directions for the entire campus. And, as a result, the library now collects more in the areas of emergency medicine, disaster planning, response, recovery, grief counseling, etc… In the weeks and months after the attack, we saw victims’ families coming into the library looking for information. This was just another indication of how dramatically our user group had changed.

The changes to our collections and services inspired an awareness that the library didn’t have before. Tornadoes are a regular occurrence in Oklahoma and now we are ready for them. We have learned to prepare for natural disasters that are likely to happen in our area; and we’re doing what we can to avoid being caught off-guard and to help other institutions do the same. But, as much as we can predict and plan, real preparedness is more about attitude than anything else.

One of my favorite stories about libraries helping was from Lee Brawner who was the director of the Metropolitan Library System (he has since passed away). We called him the “Consummate Library Director.” After the attacks, a church just north of the library headquarters was being used as a morgue. First responders were facing horrible and grisly work pulling bodies out of the rubble and bringing them to the church. Lee asked the responders what he could do to help. They told him that they needed a place to wash their dogs. Lee took care of it right away; he offered the staff lounge and the shower room at the library. It became the refuge for those responders. It was a place to relax, away from the mayhem. They could just wash their dogs and sit in peace.

Lee’s story isn’t about being at the site, acting the hero. It was about doing what you could, about being on the periphery and finding a way to offer effective help, even in the most non-traditional ways.

In our classes, we present situations and ask the students what to do. If you were to ask me, I would tell you that my first priority is to take care of the staff. Then work on reestablishing the library. This is a lesson I learned from Lee: the library is an important constant for the community. Let them know that you are OK; and it will give them the confidence to move forward.

One of our scenarios involves an infectious outbreak in the community. The first reaction is always to go home. But, we have to think about opening again and establishing normalcy. Library is the touchstone and we set the tone for the campus.

Librarians have to know who to call; know who is in charge; know what to do. They have to be able to answer questions like: where are the freezers for the books?

A lot of the people that you need to know in a disaster won’t be part of your everyday lives (police, fire people, maintenance, etc…). However, they become immediately important in a disaster. It is very important to change your normal routine and get to know these people.

After the bombing, there was a heightened sense of awareness. People were really excited about teaching disaster planning. But then there was a drought for many years. People forget when everything returns to normal. It would seem that we all need some event to wake us up. However, now is the time for revival and retraining.

All of my staff members knew to check in. The lack of communication from my porter was a signal. I knew something was dreadfully wrong when he failed to get in touch.

A forensics lab was set up with experts to identify the bodies. My porter had a university identification card, but that was his only ID. We were initially called because of his ID, but the final confirmation came a full four months later. It was a terrible loss.

One month after the storm, I was back in the city as part of one of the earlier waves back. My brother-in-law was a building contractor. He helped get me into the city when security was still tight. There was a sense that the response was thrown together at the last minute. No one knew what to do. People were making up rules as they went. And the rumors about the city were just wild! When I went through security, the personnel asked if I was armed. When I said yes, the guard replied, “good,” and let me through. But the level of lawlessness was nowhere near as high as it was reported. That the death toll was as low as 1700 was remarkable.

The change to the landscape and to the city was just awful; the devastation was immense. It looked like a battle zone. My home is smack dab in the middle of the city. Contrary to public opinion, not all of New Orleans is below sea level. But, my house was very low and it filled with seven and a half feet of water. The lower half of the house was completely destroyed.

Even though the students were gone, my library was being used as a dormitory by hospital and medical school staff and faculty in the aftermath of the storm. Despite there being nearly three feet of water above street level, the university hospital was still running. The medical school is connected to the Tulane Hospital via an overhead bridge. Staff members who were on the ground helped with patients at the hospital. Tulane’s patients were evacuated via helicopter, then staff and physicians, then everyone else. The Charity Hospital, located right across the street (but not accessible by bridge), was not so lucky. Their patients were essentially abandoned. As the water started to recede, the National Guard brought Charity patients over to Tulane via truck.

As of today, some of the city is still deserted. Rebuilding will take a long, long time. Luckily, the level of damage at the library was not too severe. The medical library is on the second floor but we also manage a public access computer lab on the first floor. Fortunately, two people who were there during the storm helped maintenance and security to move the computers up to the library on the second floor. Staff saved any other records that they could grab and brought them up to the second floor. There was a big fear of mold in the building. A team came through to look at the ventilation system and then they returned to the library mid January, 2006. At that time we were given the OK to return to the library; it was nearly 6 months after the storm.

Hurricane Katrina was unique in many ways. It would be false to make too many comparisons to other storms, like the ones that happen annually in Florida. In New Orleans, the water didn’t have an escape route. It became trapped and needed to be pumped out. It is almost a blessing when the water recedes quickly because it leaves a clean landscape. New Orleans suffered greatly because of the length of time that the water filled the city. People couldn’t respond because the city became impenetrable.

I found out about the flooding the morning the levees broke. And I was contacted by one of the university officers of administration quite quickly. The sharing of cell phones was going on between senior officers. Ten other administrators and I were invited to a meeting at the home of the president of Baylor’s College of Medicine. There, we were de-briefed on the status of Tulane.

I was constantly trying to call all of my staff members to find out where they were. My node for cell phone service was New Orleans (504). My advice for people developing disaster plans is to get a cell phone with a “safe” area code. All the re-routing equipment for 504 was destroyed. I was able to get through one out of three times in the first week.

A comprehensive list with all the staff and all of their phone numbers was prepared beforehand and kept up-to-date through constant revisions. But, we did not have remote contact information (friend or family outside of the area). Now, we include information about one person close by and one more than 150 miles outside. University communications were down for quite a while and alternative methods had to be established. IT staff was very good at getting people to set up backup email accounts (Yahoo, Gmail, etc…). Within 10 days, they had found everybody and had backup emails in place for communications. One third of Tulane’s people were not traveling with lap tops. However, the provision of public access to computers was excellent.

A total of four staff members were in Houston with me. During the post-Katrina recovery period, Tulane’s Medical School was sheltered by Baylor College of Medicine and the School of Public Health was hosted by the University of Texas School of Public Health. The city of Houston and their academic institutions really came to the aid of the people of New Orleans and the students, faculty and staff of Tulane.

The Tulane people who were in Houston joined the staff of HAM (Houston Academy of Medicine) and worked to support the medical school which was there for a whole year. The librarians and other displaced workers did as much as possible to relieve the burden on HAM.

Library people who were on the ground in New Orleans helped in many “non-traditional ways.” Those who were at the medical school helped to evacuate patients from the hospital. They assisted in every kind of physical and surgical procedure you can imagine. The hospital workers were completely exhausted after two days. Anyone available was called in to help.

Many of Tulane’s people who stayed in New Orleans ended up working or studying with the Ochsner Health System (a large hospital group). Some of the librarians at the Houston Academy of Medicine went to help out at the evacuation centers in Texas. But, the magnitude of the destruction in New Orleans made it impossible to respond in the same way. The infrastructure had completely collapsed. People could not return for weeks and weeks. Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced across the south.

I spoke with vendors and found them to be very cooperative. They provided free access for Tulane people who could not connect through the university servers. We now have duplicate, off-site servers to help serve displaced users. Some vendors were hesitant because the whole situation was so strange. But, in less than a day, they were calling back with solutions.

I returned to the library at Tulane on December 17^th, 2005. We ended up operating out of a conference room in an adjacent building. But we were still able to serve our users remotely. The students came back to the school in June, 2006. The library returned to regular service at that time. Faculty came back piece by piece. We lost one quarter of the faculty because the university couldn’t afford to keep everyone anymore. The library lost one third of our staff. Despite these cutbacks, the student body stayed the same and we needed to find ways to continue serving them as before.

Physical traffic in the library had been in decline before the storm in any rate. Our gate count was going down, so were our circulation statistics, ILL requests, etc… The numbers diminished ever further after Katrina. Many reasons contributed to the changing patterns of use. Remote access meant that libraries could operate in an automated mode. The technology has altered the library experience. But the decreased foot traffic meant that our reduced staff was able to cope.

Our physical library became a base of operations for the security force. The staff lounge became the armory; our fax line in the conference room was heavily used as it was one of the longest functioning phone lines in the whole facility. To a great extent, the physical location was commandeered for other purposes, but library services were able to continue because of the prevalence of electronic information resources.

Librarians can help support these services by building redundancies into the system. We need to build backups into all of our data. The issue of maintaining access has overshadowed preservation of paper. We don’t have to protect the paper anymore.

But the primary issue was getting people out well in advance. Our contact lists are now much deeper than they were before. Along with the contact information, we learned other lessons that have been essential in rebuilding. Many institutions have moved to higher ground. Electrical systems have also moved to higher levels in the buildings. Institutions are drilling their own wells so that they can get their own water supply.

Needs were very basic. Consumer health and public health issues were vitally important: basic sanitation, disease control, housing, and clean water, etc… The situation was akin to a mission to a third world country. People were concentrating on survival.

The hospital realized that they had a highly infectious case on their hands and Toronto Public Health started mobilizing. Initially there was a lot of tension and fear. But, not as much as you would expect. A great media system helped. Dr. Sheela Basrur, the Medical Officer of Health for the City of Toronto, was also an extremely capable leader. She worked very hard to keep the population calm.

Everything happened so fast and information constantly needed to be updated. Patients being transferred between hospitals aided the transmission of the disease. Also, it was very common for nurses to work in multiple hospitals and they were traveling back and forth through the infected zone. In the end, more than 23, 000 people had to be quarantined to control the spread of the disease.

During the first wave, we monitored journals that were starting to publish electronically. Our library liaison in the government was corresponding with officials. But, in the Public Health Library we didn’t even get asked for anything before people started thinking the whole event was over. And then the second wave hit.

Toronto Public Health had set up an information hotline during the first wave. It wasn’t until the second wave that the managers of the hotline realized they had a problem organizing the information. I was called in to help.

The hotline workers (45 public health nurses) all used these big binders to help them answer the wide variety of questions that were coming in from the public. The binders used in the first phase of the outbreak were not updated before being pressed into service for the second wave. The binders each had three sections with many chapters. The information had been gathered as the staff members went along and attempted to answer the questions that came up. But, there were literally thousands of questions.

When I was assigned to the hotline area. No one knew what information they had or what was right. Information was changing hourly and daily. Public briefings were happening all the time. There were lists of deaths, outbreaks, quarantines, etc… Instructions were issued by the Public Health Department and the hotline number was distributed by the media. Any piece of information released by the media would cause a flood of phone calls. As soon as an outbreak was reported, people wanted to know if they had been exposed. We had to know exactly where each outbreak was located and where the person had been. The entire situation demanded current, accurate data to be distributed to the hotline workers. There were so many calls that — at one point — Public Health was preparing to requisition major call centers if the numbers increased any more.

The first problem was updating the binders. I worked with a public health nurse who had been manning the phones since the beginning. We worked to take out all of the old information. The process I adopted for updating these binders was based on loose-leaf processes used mainly for law library materials Each binder included a master index and ten sections. They were:

1. Phone Log-in Instructions
2. What is SARS?
3. Process for Dealing with SARS Calls
4. Contact Follow-up and Documentation Forms
5. Mask Information / Sanitizing with Bleach
6. Information Regarding Discharged Patients
7. New / Communication Updates / Travel Advisories
8. Medical Information for Hospitals
9. Travel Advisories
10. Helpful Telephone / Addresses / Websites

I maintained the master binder and there were regular checks to make sure the other 35 binders were the same as the master copy. It took a couple of days to organize the binders.

Then, we began the system of adding updates. Hotline managers attended meetings at about the same time every day. After the meeting, daily updates would be added to the binders. Urgent updates were added as soon as the information was received. The phones were manned every day from 8:30 am until 11:00 pm. There were day and night shifts, but more people worked in the day than during the evening. It would become a problem if someone missed an update. Discrepancies between information resources were also a problem; and there was a lot of information confusion during the emergency. And sometimes small format changes (the date for example) would result in serious problems. All of these discrepancies had to be accounted for before any updates could be distributed to the hotline.

Larger problems in disseminating information were due to Toronto being such a multicultural city. After the fact, I heard from some Chinese friends. They all watch Hong Kong television and were completely in the dark when it came to local public health notices. 110 languages were being spoken in Toronto, but the hotline and the Toronto Public Health website was only translating into six. Even then, it was difficult to have staffing to ensure that all six languages were covered in any given shift.

My role wasn’t conducting typical library work. Public Health had their own information sources so they weren’t coming to the library. Organizing the binders for the hotline was more about my general skills. I was filling a practical role keeping information organized, maintaining an information network and dealing with people. Toronto Public Health was significantly affected as an organization. Many workers were quarantined or had relatives in the hospitals. Areas were closed and it was difficult to get information. As a librarian, I had experience working with people and it helped tremendously.

1. A communication binder or manual be produced which would act as a template for future hotline operations. This should include an orientation manual for staff.
2. An evaluation be carried out on the types of questions coming into the hotline to determine the information needed.
3. Keep a log of the types of questions fielded by managers and team leaders to ascertain the problem area which may be addressed by having that information in the binders or an electronic system.
4. All communications produced exclusively for the binder or database has section numbers for the headers, date and time of issue. Time is important since during a single day materials could be issued three times and time is the only way to ascertain the latest version of a document.
5. Subject indexing be adopted for binder materials using reference manager software. Controlled language subject indexing would have helped to locate materials faster. Subject indexing should be incorporated for any electronic database constructed to handle future hotline communication materials.
6. Keyword searching is not the best answer to subject access as keywords are produced from titles of documents or the full text of a document. Such keywords may not always reflect the genre of the document or be too confusing to an individual trying to locate information quickly. Subject descriptors would have to be assigned by an information officer or health professional using an authority file.

I also examined the information discrepancies and created a SARS Information Discrepancy Table. My main recommendation was for the creation of an Information Liaison Control Officer to manage the flow of information.

The SARS outbreak in Toronto was the first major outbreak of an illness in our area to happen since the 1950s and 1960s. It really shook people up and a lot of plans were made after the fact. But, disaster planning has really fallen off the radar since. And there is still a lot more we could do.

For example, I really feel that better contact should be established with the non-English speaking communities in Toronto. If another disease outbreak occurred in the area, we could have real problems communicating with these groups. I also think that we need to have a better handle on the social services and agencies in town and how they work. In another disease outbreak situation, this information needs to be at our fingertips.

And there was definitely a need for better access to detailed, military maps. People were calling who had been in a certain section of the building. We needed to see where exactly the outbreak happened and how close they were to it. That kind of building information wasn’t always accessible at the time it was needed.

The library started getting reference questions about SARS after the emergency died down. Suddenly, all of these people were writing reports. I started to assemble what is now that most comprehensive collection on SARS; we probably have every single book ever published on the disease.

The experience made me think about information access in a disaster. I started asking: How would we have access to the electronic information if everything falls apart? What are the core areas? What do we need to have in print? It made me realize that certain things should always be collected in paper. For example, I still buy the new print editions of the CPS (Compendium of Pharmaceutical and Specialties) even though there is an electronic edition available.

But, most of the roles are for the librarian as an individual. In my recommendations, I outlined the needs for an Information Control Officer. I see the librarian’s role as aiding information flow and working between the administrative levels. I can even see an information officer needed on every floor. We need to help our organizations understand how information should be presented, to stress the importance of continuity (in date formats, for example). It was a corporate standard in the city of Toronto not to put a date on websites. This standard had to be changed. Little things make a big difference in an emergency situation because little details have to be confirmed.

Another role for the library is being involved in the community. Sharing vital information with the public will be very difficult in an outbreak situation, especially in the large, multi-cultural city centers. Librarians have to be aware of the whole community and have contacts that they can call on in an emergency.