Emergency Planning and Response for Libraries, Archives and Museums

1. Introduction

• Why is a plan important?
• Definition and terminology
• Will your existing plan work in practice?
• Writing an effective plan - how to use this book

2. Case studies

• Flood recovery at the State Library, Queensland, Australia
• The fire at the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library, London
• The New Zealand earthquakes
• Wider recovery from a river flood at the University of Sussex, UK
• Fire and flood recovery at Norfolk County Record Office, UK
• Impact of power loss on an archive service in a UK local authority
• Wider impacts after flooding to a university campus, including the archive
• Strategies for preparedness at the Library of Congress
• The Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 11 March 2011 and its impact on library and archive collections

3. Roles and responsibilities

• Introduction
• Emergency response activities
• Emergency Management Team roles
• Emergency Management Team additional roles
• Ensuring your Emergency Management Team works effectively

4. Incident control

• Introduction
• Categorized response?
• Uniform approach
• Immediate responses to water damage
• Immediate responses to fire
• Immediate responses to flood or storm warning
• Immediate responses to other types of incident

5. Planning the recovery operation

• Emergency Management Team meeting
• Tactics - in-house or outsource?
• Triage assessment
• Involving insurers
• Health and safety
• Ending the emergency phase

6. Collections salvage

• Planning salvage
• Stabilization and salvage strategy
• Moving damaged items
• Assessing damaged items
• Air-drying techniques
• Large-scale drying
• Fire and smoke damage

7. Supplementary content

• Personnel contact lists
• Priority lists
• Floor plans
• Emergency equipment
• External suppliers and utility companies
• Additional appendices
• Incident report forms

8. Dealing with the building

• Water damage
• Fire damage
• Preventative measures

9. Business continuity

• How to write a business continuity plan
• Effective communications

10. Ensuring the plan's efficacy

• Making your plan user-friendly
• Plan distribution
• Plan testing
• Training
• Working with other sections of your organization
• Continuous improvement

ConclusionBibliography and references