Disaster Plan by MayDay 2010 Step 1

Posted by Alix on 11 January, 2010 in Librarians, Preservation, disaster

LYRASIS Preservation Services will be publishing easy steps that you can take to complete your Disaster Plan. A new step will be presented every 2 weeks. If you follow each step you will have a Disaster Plan by MayDay 2010.

Step 1: Planning

With a new year come resolutions and goals. You are anxious to get started writing or updating the disaster response plan for you library, archives or museum. But before you begin, you need to organize your thoughts and resources.

Locate a copy of your existing disaster plan, whether it is comprehensive disaster response and recovery plans or a simple procedural checklist. It may be that departments within your agency have their own plans. Be sure to check with the maintenance and IT staff. If your cultural institution is part of a larger supporting agency or cooperative, get a copy of their disaster plans as well. As a county library – obtain a copy the emergency response plan for the county. If you are part of a college or university, get a copy of the university’s plan. You get the idea. It may take longer than two weeks, but having this information will be beneficial when who write or update your plan.

Now to organizing your people resources: developing or updating a disaster plan is a great deal of work. Share it. Whether you call it a committee, a team or a working group, identify those who have a vested interest in the disaster preparedness of your institution. Who has the information and authority that you will need to support and implement your plan? Some suggestions are the chief administrator of your agency, a member of the buildings and maintenance staff, an IT person and representatives from any other departments in your institution. Including a staff member familiar with the finance and purchasing procedures of your agency is strongly recommended. Don’t forget to seek out a representative of your governing organization if you have one. You may want to consider a member of your advisory board and a member of the wider cultural and/or business community. They too have an interest in the longevity and accessibility of your collections and will bring a different perspective to your plans.

Take time to identify your possible disaster plan committee members looking both at their position or role in the institution and the individuals themselves. The people you ask to work with you should be a resource and a sounding board, as well as support for the over all disaster readiness of your cultural institution. Be cognizant of the time you are asking them to invest. Be clear and be prepared to set timelines and deadlines and to stick to them, but be flexible, too. Also make sure you have clear channels of communication and ways to easily share information.

And finally, identify the goal of your plan. Are you looking to create a comprehensive disaster response plan or do you need to address a specific type of emergency? Have you had problems with a leaking basement? Has your area been prone to wild fires? Are you experiencing frequent power outages? Are you planning a construction project? There are many possibilities. A great way to approach possible planning committee members is engage them in the conversation about your current state of emergency readiness and to discuss the goal of writing or updating your disaster response plan. You may have an idea in mind, but discussions can help crystallize the goal.

As mentioned earlier, this planning may take longer than two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan by MayDay 2010.

Step 2 will be presented January 25, 2010.

LYRASIS Preservation Services are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access.

1 Comment on Disaster Plan by MayDay 2010 Step 1

By Disaster Plan on 27 January, 2010 at 11:19 am

[...] staff is presenting a series of articles on developing a disaster plan by May Day. You can find the Step One and Step Two on the Lyrasis blog, “Check it [...]