The Emergency Preparedness & Response Committee for the Southeastern/Atlantic Region (SE/A) of NN/LM met at the Embassy Suites near the University of South Florida, in Tampa, FL on July 14, amongst live oak trees with Spanish moss and crepe myrtle trees in full bloom–a Southern summer in full swing!  To see the State Coordinators, check out the picture in the Photo Gallery (not pictured–the West Virginia Coordinator).  In addition to the Region’s State Coordinators for emergency preparedness, the SE/A RML was represented by Executive Director Janice Kelly and Network Coordinator and Emergency Preparedness & Response Coordinator Beth Wescott.  During the morning session, the group heard an overview and updates on the past year’s progress of the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan from Dan Wilson, Coordinator of the National plan.  Following Dan’s presentation, all state coordinators reported on the status of preparedness in their areas, which had all been fortunate during the past year, having escaped major damage or service disruption from hurricanes or tornadoes, two of the highest risks for the region.  Following the state reports from Maryland, D.C., West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Puerto Rico, all the state coordinators participated in the ”train the trainer” session for the “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” for health sciences libraries and information centers, providing some excellent feedback on the new curriculum materials.  SE/A representatives scored high, almost across the board, in the risk assessment exercise, due to the number of weather-related risks as well as port cities, and chemical and nuclear facilities. 

During and after lunch, Dan facilitated a discussion about issues to be addressed in the region such as methods of communication, “buddy library” relationships, and the roles of the RML and the state coordinators.   The consensus was that the group is well-positioned for continued progress with regard to promoting emergency preparedness in the states and across the region, and plans are underway for hosting and teaching classes and representing the initative within local and regional groups.

Recently, Dan has made two presentations, as an invited speaker, that featured the importance of service continuity planning for libraries, and in both cases he used the scenario of social distancing in response to the H1N1 influenza virus (see info from the CDC) as a basis.  Some experts are warning that H1N1 may re-surge in the northern hemisphere early this fall, well before the tradional flu season, so it’s important that we remain aware of the potential risks from a more widespread epidemic than we have seen so far, and that we keep the banner of service continuity moving forward.

On July 9, Dan addressed the monthly conference call hosted by NLM’s Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC), giving an overview of this year’s activities of the NN/LM’s emergency preparedness initiative, and featuring the Hospital Librarians Summit which was held in Chicago in April (click here to see the posting about this).  Other highlights of this year have been conducting training meetings with NN/LM staff and state coordinators in the PNR, SCR, GMR, PSR and SE/A regions, enhancing the Toolkit, and developing promotional materials.  Several participants on the call confirmed that the training has been very effective so far, and “buy-in” from NN/LM members has been excellent.

On July 17, Dan addressed the annual Interlibrary Loan Forum of the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) at Sweet Briar College in Lynchburg, VA.  Working from the NN/LM’s emergency preparedness plan, which emphasizes service continuity, especially for Interlibrary Loan services, Dan presented the procedures that have been established through a partnership between the Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for providing back-up ILL services for each other in an emergency, and which are transparent to library users.  While the audience represented all types of academic libraries in Virginia, it included several who are NN/LM members.  Click ILL Backup Plan VIVA to see Dan’s slides from the VIVA Forum.

If you would like more information about the ILL backup plan between the two libraries or about training for service continuity, please contact one of us (see the “About Us” tab at the top of the page).

The “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” class, created by the Coordinator and Project Assistant for the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan, has been approved by the Medical Library Association (MLA) for 2 hours of Continuing Education credit, awarded at the conclusion of the class.  To view information about the class, check here on the MLA Educational Clearinghouse site.  (You can find the class by using “emergency” as the keyword in the search box on the first page of the site.)   If you are interested in arranging a ”10-Step Approach…” class for yourself or a group, contact your NN/LM regional office at 1-800-338-7657.  Classes are offered both face-to-face and virtually.

We met last week (June 22) with NN/LM staff from the Pacific Southwest Region (PSR) in the Louise Darling Biomedical Library at UCLA, along with representatives from the states in their region (see the photo of state representatives in the gallery here on the site).  Attending for the states were:  Amy Knehans from Hawaii, Cinda McClain from Arizona, Triza Crittle from Nevada, and Chapter liaisons Peggy Tahir and Irene Lovas from California.   After an overview of progress of the national plan and reports from the state representatives and NN/LM staff, we presented the recently developed curriculum for use by NN/LM staff in training members in the “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity,” which now includes a new risk assessment exercise and score sheet handout (thanks to the South Central Region for the encouragement to develop this idea!).

Judy Consales, Director, and Julie Kwan, Network Coordinator of the PSR taught a class called “Are You Ready?” in Hawaii, presenting both face-to-face and using AccessGrid, which was quite successful.  In addition to outreach efforts, Heidi Sandstrom, Associate Director, noted that their library has also continued to develop emergency preparedness plans, having recently enhanced signage and room numbers/designations to help with evacuations and troubleshooting in their building.  Jake Nadal, of the UCLA Library’s Preservation Department, spoke to the group about UCLA’s efforts to provide continuous access to digital resources as well as how to plan for preservation of print materials and other library resources.  The day closed with a discussion of goals for the region during the coming year, as well as some questions and ideas to be addressed, as outlined by Heidi.

Once again, we were energized by the excellent collaborative spirit of the NN/LM staff and the state representatives from the PSR, and benefitted from hearing about their successes as well as ideas for improvement of the plan and the resources offered (e.g. the Toolkit and the training materials).  The PSR training meeting was our last NN/LM staff meeting for this contract year, and we can say without reservation that NN/LM Directors, Associate Directors, all NN/LM staff, and the state representatives have been unfailingly enthusiastic, hospitable, creative, and committed to including emergency preparedness in their outreach to NN/LM members.

There are three new brochures available for use in promoting the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan.  There is one that presents an overview of the plan, one that features the Toolkit, and one about the “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” class.  Check out the new page, “Promotional Materials” here on the Toolkit (see above) for the PDFs of the brochures, and contact your NN/LM office for more information or to arrange a class.

On Monday, Feb. 9, Dan and I had the pleasure of meeting with the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region’s (PNR) staff, as well as the State Emergency Preparedness (EP) Coordinators for the region, and several members of the University of Washington’s Health Sciences Library staff. The meeting at the South Campus Center began with a review by Dan about the progress made with regard to the roll-out and implementation of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response plan since last spring, when we visited PNR on March 17. The PNR State EP Coordinators contributed information about the status of emergency planning in their states, some of the risks they face (tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes), some challenges in their areas (remote areas in Alaska, sparsely populated areas in Montana) as well as several incidents that have occurred in the past year. Following the updates, Dan facilitated a discussion of current initiatives and issues including MOUs and MAAs, service continuity training, NLM’s Emergency Access Initiative, use of the online toolkit, DOCLINE issues, and others. The afternoon session included a “train-the-trainer” session, in which Dan presented the Instructional Guide for training NN/LM Network members in service continuity, as outlined in the “10 Step Approach to Service Continuity” class. After the class, the State EP Coordinators and Gail Kouame, Consumer Health Coordinator and Chair of the EP Committee, met to plan initiatives for the coming year.

Following the meeting, a group of us went to dinner and were able to follow-up about the day’s activities. Gail reported that the EP Committee is energized, and had come up with lots of good ideas for promoting the Plan in their states. We look forward to hearing about their activities and the ways they will engage their Network members in emergency preparedness!

PNR State Coordinators: Bob Pringle, Washington; Kathy Murray, Alaska; Marcia Francis, Idaho; Dolores Judkins, Oregon; Laurel Egan, Montana

South Campus Center, University of Washington

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!

We heard from Claire Hamasu, Associate Director of the MidContinental Region (MCR) of NN/LM at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City about their emergency preparedness and response activities to date.  Claire notes that she and Javier Crespo, the Associate Director of the New England Region (NER) at the University of Massachusetts and the “buddy” RML for MCR, have reviewed MCR’s continuity of service plan.  Instructions were refined to clearly explain how the NER could use the MCR’s communication tools to inform those in the MCR how to contact the NER for assistance.

At the October Regional Advisory Board meeting, one of the discussion topics was Emergency Planning.  The question was, “Assuming that emergency planning is important, how do we, the RML, promote activities that result in emergency plans?  Three themes emerged from this discussion:

1. Libraries need to be part of the institution’s emergency plan.  They must be at the table where it’s being formed.  Librarians need to insinuate the library into the discussion.
2. Libraries should partner with other organizations outside their institution–public library, public health, and other hospitals.
3. Libraries need to protect their core resources.

The NN/LM MCR has made funding available for emergency planning.  Network members can apply for up to $15,000 to fund projects designed to develop partnerships that enhance access to health information in preparation for and during emergencies.  MCR has established two liaisons with other libraries, the Dykes Library in Kansas and the McGoogan Library of Medicine in Nebraska, to create emergency preparedness plans for the libraries.

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!