Disaster Response and Planning for Libraries

Citation

Bazzell, T.Y. (1999), "Disaster Response and Planning for Libraries", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 9, pp. 353-354. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.9.353.3

“I had always assumed that disasters and catastrophes befell other libraries and not my own” (p. 52), Lee Brawner of Metropolitan Library, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, stated in his correspondence after the Oklahoma City bombing. His sentiment surely is shared by many information professionals. We all should be aware of the importance of preparedness for unexpected disasters. If your library does not have a disaster response plan yet, this book will help you develop one.

The book is organized with an introduction followed by six sections and a bibliography. The author explains the necessity for a disaster response plan in libraries and gives a brief overview of the publication in the introduction. The book starts with the response to a disaster. The author states this response‐first arrangement is “just in case a reader needs to implement a response before there is an opportunity to put an actual plan together”. However, this reviewer did not find this approach particularly useful.

Section 2 briefly discusses the resumption of library services and operations after the initial disaster response. Evaluating and revising the response plan are also touched on in this section. Section 3 deals with prevention. This includes the building survey and identifying vulnerable collections. Some examples of preventive steps are suggested, based on the survey findings. Planning is discussed in detail in Section 4. The author provides standard, step‐by‐step guidelines for making a disaster response plan. Each step is correlated to the previous sections. Section 5, Response and recovery procedures, details basic response procedures under different types of disasters such as fire, flood, power outage, etc. Recovery procedures such as packing and different kinds of drying methods for materials are covered. Section 6 contains two appendixes: a generic checklist and forms for all phases of disaster response planning, and a selected list of contacts for assistance and supplies. The nine‐page bibliography is organized for practical use and includes ten basic articles and books, audiovisual and film materials and up‐to‐date articles and books.

This reviewer was a member of a library disaster preparedness team which developed a disaster response plan for a mid‐sized university in Washington, DC. There was no book available then to guide us, so we collected other institutions’ existing plans and then borrowed and revised ideas to fit our needs. Kahn’s book would have been a useful time saver in our initial planning stage, but it would not have been relied on as the only resource. For example, it does not cover the issue of evacuating people inside a building. Since there were several visually, hearing and physically impaired users at our institution, we included an evacuation procedure especially for people with disabilities.

Kahn can be used as a guide for an organization considering development of a disaster response plan. As the author often states, since individual organizations differ in size, location, mission and focus, the book can only cover basic elements. It can be used as a starting point, and each individual organization must tailor a plan to fit its own situation.