Suggestion #11:  Reporting.  An essential part of maintaining and improving your plan is to get as much information about every incident as possible, once the dust has settled.  Set up a section in your plan for Reporting, specifying the people who should be notified, and by whom, as well as what information they will need to provide follow-up.

You can devise a form which will help your first-responders know what information they should provide (see an example in the UVa plan linked to the “Sample Disaster Plans” tab above).  Reporting is most helpful if the chain of command in your library is notified simultaneously, such as by an email to the group (Emergency Response Coordinator to department heads to the manager of your facility and to your Director, for instance).  This way, if a key person in the communication chain is absent, the other members will still be informed about the incident and the follow-up.

Suggestion #11:  Reporting.  An essential part of maintaining and improving your plan is to get as much information about every incident as possible, once the dust has settled.  Set up a section in your plan for Reporting, specifying the people who should be notified, and by whom, as well as what information they will need to provide follow-up.

You can devise a form which will help your first-responders know what information they should provide (see an example in the UVa plan, linked to the “Sample Disaster Plan” tab above).  Reporting is most helpful if the chain of command in your library is notified simultaneously, such as by an email to the group (Emergency Response Coordinator to department heads to the manager of your facility and to your Director, for instance).  This way, if a key person in the communication chain is absent, the other members will still be informed about the incident and the follow-up.

Suggestion #10:  Document your Evacuation plan for staff and patrons.  Your library probably already has an Evacuation procedure in place, but you may need to elaborate on it to ensure that everyone knows how to safely exit the building from any location.  It is a good idea to have a narrative page that explains the Evacuation routes from all areas of the building, as well as maps based on floor plans (similar to those found on the inside of the doors to hotel rooms) showing the location and the route out.  Your Evacuation plan should include a specified site outside the building where your staff should gather after being evacuated.  You might need to specify two sites; one can be fairly near your building, in the event of a routine evacuation (such as power outage), and one farther away for more urgent situations such as earthquake or fire.  There should also be a procedure to follow after evacuation, such as:

• go directly to the designated evacuation site
• do not re-enter the building until directed by a person in authority
• report to your supervisor to find out the status of the building, your work area, and whether you are to continue your work responsibilities at the present time

It is very important that all staff be trained and re-trained regarding Evacuation procedures.  There is no guarantee that everyone will be at their own workstations when an evacuation is ordered, so all staff need to know all routes.  When training staff in Evacuation procedures, it is helpful to train in small groups and actually walk through the routes from each part of your building.  Remember to account for anyone, either staff or patrons, who might have mobility issues and need help, especially if elevators are not available because of the emergency.  Your goal is to ensure that everyone knows and can access the safest possible route from any part of your building, and is aware of follow-up procedures that will ensure that everyone is accounted for after an evacuation.

Suggestion #10:  Document your Evacuation plan for staff and patrons.  Your library probably already has an Evacuation procedure in place, but you may need to elaborate on it to ensure that everyone knows how to safely exit the building from any location.  It is a good idea to have a narrative page that explains the Evacuation routes from all areas of the building, as well as maps based on floor plans (similar to those found on the inside of the doors to hotel rooms) showing the location and the route out.  Your Evacuation plan should include a specified site outside the building where your staff should gather after being evacuated.  You might need to specify two sites; one can be fairly near your building, in the event of a routine evacuation (such as power outage), and one farther away for more urgent situations such as earthquake or fire.  There should also be a procedure to follow after evacuation, such as:

• go directly to the designated evacuation site
• do not re-enter the building until directed by a person in authority
• report to your supervisor to find out the status of the building, your work area, and whether you are to continue your work responsibilities at the present time

It is very important that all staff be trained and re-trained regarding Evacuation procedures.  There is no guarantee that everyone will be at their own workstations when an evacuation is ordered, so all staff need to know all routes.  When training staff in Evacuation procedures, it is helpful to train in small groups and actually walk through the routes from each part of your building.  Remember to account for anyone, either staff or patrons, who might have mobility issues and need help, especially if elevators are not available because of the emergency.  Your goal is to ensure that everyone knows and can access the safest possible route from any part of your building, and is aware of follow-up procedures that will ensure that everyone is accounted for after an evacuation.

“When disaster strikes, you may have only a short time to make what might be a life or death decision.”

The above quote is taken from a web page maintained by the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency, Clarksville, Tennessee. The site explains the emergency alerting system for their area.

What alerting system exists for your area?

Center for Disease Control and Prevention Emergency Preparedness and Response

Suggestion #6:  As you develop emergency response procedures, create a table for the “first responders,” that shows the order of immediate response to all the emergency events that you have identified as potential threats to your library.

When an emergency occurs, there will often not be enough time for staff to find the full procedure in the disaster plan manual.  Since the correct response depends upon the urgency of the situation in may cases, it will be helpful to have a chart or table that can be posted at the location where emergencies are reported and handled, your designated “Command Central” (in our case, this location is the Circulation desk).  The table provides a “ready reference” for staff, as well as providing a training aid for all first responders on your staff.

Your columns might be:  Incident / Initial Response / Secondary Response / Follow-Up Response, while your rows will include all the events, listed in alphabetical order.  In our case, a call to 911 is the first response for the most urgent situations, such as explosion , fire, or medical emergency, while notifying the ERC (Emergency Response Coordinator) is the first response for less urgent, but nonetheless situations of significant impact, such as biological agent contamination, suspicious behavior, and flooding.  For situations such a widespread power outage that is likely to last for several hours, an epidemic, or an approaching hurricane, the library’s management group will meet to plan a strategy, since the impact will be significant and will have an effect on all staff and patrons, but the time is not as critical in the decision-making process as it is for urgent situations that occur suddenly.   To see the chart we devised, check out our Comprehensive Disaster Plan (linked here and in the menu on the right), and click on “Staff Training.”