Disaster Plan by MayDay 2010 Step 3 Identify Essential Services

Posted by Alix on 8 February, 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 two weeks. If you follow each step you will have a Disaster Plans by MayDay 2010.

In step 1, you began gathering information about your cultural institution’s current state of readiness and finding people to assist you. In step 2 you started assessing your building and environment. Now, for step 3: you must identify the services that are essential to the operation of your organization. Some are internal and some will be public.

After a disaster strikes it is unlikely that you will be able to function normally for a time, but you still need to continue key business operations and services in order to recover. What are YOUR essential operations and services? Some internal operations and services may include human resources, finance and communications. Your organization may have others. For the public services you need to identify what it is that you do best - what are the services and collections that your constituents use most frequently? Another way to put it - the restart of this service would indicate that you are recovering. This is part public relations: part resumption of services.

Talk with the people you have tapped to work with you in the planning process. Get their views. Get input from heads of department. Brainstorm. They may each have a favorite (Take note of them because you will need those for the next step) but what you are looking for is the commonalities - what do you all need?

This step may take longer than the two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan by MayDay 2010.

Step 4 will be presented February 22, 2010.

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