The “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” class is one of three primary components of NN/LM’s Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan.  While the focus of the class is on enabling libraries to maintain their information services to their patrons in the event of an emergency or disaster, the class also includes information about developing basic personal safety procedures as well as how to get help to mitigate the damage to collections after a disaster.

If you are interested in hosting or attending a “10-Step Approach” class, or in receiving other assistance in emergency preparedness, please contact your regional NN/LM office (1-800-338-7657), or contact the toolkit administrators, Dan Wilson (danwilson@virginia.edu) or Susan Yowell (syowell@virginia.edu).

Click here to view a presentation of “A 10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning” that Dan Wilson used for a virtual class he presented to Network members of the Pacific Southwest and Mid-Continental regions of the NN/LM in September 2008.

NN/LM Template for 10-Step Approach to Service Continuity: this template serves as a guide as you proceed through the 10 steps, to help you customize and develop a basic plan for your own library.

Text version of the “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning”:

10-Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning:

Step 1: Assess risks

Make a list of events for which your library could be at risk.

• talk with long-term staff members at your library and gather anecdotal information about emergencies or disasters that have happened in the past. Add to the list such emergencies as fire and bio-terrorism that may not have happened but which can happen anytime and anywhere.
• check the links in the right hand column of the Toolkit under the heading Risk Assessment Info & Maps to help identify events for which your area is at risk

Step 2: Protect yourself, your staff, and your patrons

• develop written procedures, specific to your building and environment, to provide for safety of people in the building in the event of an emergency; i.e. shelter-in-place procedures for tornadoes, dealing with a violent incident, preventing mold growth on wet materials, medical emergency, evacuating the building, standing water/flooded areas, chemical spill, and epidemics
• provide training to everyone who works in the building to be familiar with the procedures, hold periodic drills

Step 3: Determine your core services

Identify services that would be most needed immediately following some kind of major service disruption (e.g. Interlibrary Loan, bibliographic searches, reference help).

Step 4: Create procedures for remote access to core services

Based on your list of core services, develop strategies for maintaining access to these services from an off-site location (e.g. someone’s home or a temporary location away from your building).

Step 5: Determine your core electronic resources

Identify electronic resources that would be most needed immediately following a disaster (e.g. Medline, CINAHL, UpToDate, DynaMed, MDConsult, Stat!Ref).

Step 6: Develop a continuity of access plan for your essential electronic resources

Find out whether back-up power would be available, and whether access to internet-based resources and your home page would be possible. If back-up power would be available, find out how long this would be the case.

Read about how the Houston Academy of Medicine–Texas Medical Center collocated their server: Houston Academy of Medicine — Texas Medical Center Colocation Project

Step 7: Identify your core print collection

• list and prioritize print materials which would likely be needed by your patrons if your core online materials were not available (i.e. textbooks, reference materials, core journals)
• create a salvage “map” using a floorplan of your library, showing where core print materials are stored or shelved

Step 8: Identify your unique or highly valued resources

List unique resources and highly valued materials, such as institutional records, historical materials and artifacts, and works of art. Note in your disaster plan where these resources are located in the building and how they can be accessed by library staff or first-responders.

Step 9: Proactively plan for the recovery of your unique and highly valued resources

• based on your list of unique resources, determine which ones you would be willing to spend a significant amount of money on, in order to save them in the event that they are damaged in a disaster
• contact a commercial salvage company (e.g. BMS, Munters, and Belfor) to get an idea about costs involved in saving these materials, should freeze-drying, mold abatement, or other services be required
• remember that mold will normally grow on wet materials in about 48 hours, and sometimes less, depending on the environment–the best way to save valuable materials that are wet is to freeze them, thus stopping the growth of mold until they can be professionally treated

Step 10: Know how to obtain outside assistance

• develop a relationship with a back-up library.  Model Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Mutual Aid Agreement (MAA) forms are located on the Toolkit under the tab “Model MOUs/MAAs”.
• call a 24/7 emergency assistance service for damaged paper collections (NEDCC, WESTPAS, and Lyrasis).  These numbers can be found on the Toolkit under the tab Assistance.
• contact your regional NN/LM Office: 1-800-DEV-ROKS (1-800-338-7657)