We met last week (June 22) with NN/LM staff from the Pacific Southwest Region (PSR) in the Louise Darling Biomedical Library at UCLA, along with representatives from the states in their region (see the photo of state representatives in the gallery here on the site).  Attending for the states were:  Amy Knehans from Hawaii, Cinda McClain from Arizona, Triza Crittle from Nevada, and Chapter liaisons Peggy Tahir and Irene Lovas from California.   After an overview of progress of the national plan and reports from the state representatives and NN/LM staff, we presented the recently developed curriculum for use by NN/LM staff in training members in the “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity,” which now includes a new risk assessment exercise and score sheet handout (thanks to the South Central Region for the encouragement to develop this idea!).

Judy Consales, Director, and Julie Kwan, Network Coordinator of the PSR taught a class called “Are You Ready?” in Hawaii, presenting both face-to-face and using AccessGrid, which was quite successful.  In addition to outreach efforts, Heidi Sandstrom, Associate Director, noted that their library has also continued to develop emergency preparedness plans, having recently enhanced signage and room numbers/designations to help with evacuations and troubleshooting in their building.  Jake Nadal, of the UCLA Library’s Preservation Department, spoke to the group about UCLA’s efforts to provide continuous access to digital resources as well as how to plan for preservation of print materials and other library resources.  The day closed with a discussion of goals for the region during the coming year, as well as some questions and ideas to be addressed, as outlined by Heidi.

Once again, we were energized by the excellent collaborative spirit of the NN/LM staff and the state representatives from the PSR, and benefitted from hearing about their successes as well as ideas for improvement of the plan and the resources offered (e.g. the Toolkit and the training materials).  The PSR training meeting was our last NN/LM staff meeting for this contract year, and we can say without reservation that NN/LM Directors, Associate Directors, all NN/LM staff, and the state representatives have been unfailingly enthusiastic, hospitable, creative, and committed to including emergency preparedness in their outreach to NN/LM members.

Now that the dust has settled from the flurry of spring activities for the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan team, here is a brief summary of the Hospital Librarians Summit that was held in Chicago on April 21 with excellent results.  Fourteen hospital librarians from across the country, half sponsored by the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan and half by the eight Regions of NN/LM,  attended the day-long meeting at the Library of the Health Sciences at the University of Illinois/Chicago.  The meeting was hosted by the Greater Midwest Region of the NN/LM, with arrangements provided by Ruth Holst, Associate Director.  Each of the eight NN/LM Regions was represented, most by two hospital librarians and an emergency preparedness liaison from the NN/LM staff in each region.  Participants received an overview of NN/LM’s Emergency Preparedness Plan, and the resources that exist for assisting librarians to develop and implement emergency preparedness plans, then heard presentations about the activities of NLM’s Disaster Information Research Center (DIMRC).  In the afternoon, David Esterquest, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Ruth University Medical Center, spoke to the group about hospital emergency preparedness, how roles are established and how communication functions, as well as how hospital librarians can assist and develop roles with their hospitals for emergency preparedness.

As a result of break-out sessions that were part of the meeting, here are highlights of discussions about the roles hospital librarians can play in emergency preparedness and response:

•         offer library space (e.g. community crisis center, communications center, day care)

•         work in evacuation shelters, bringing books and needed reference materials

•         aid other institutions in disaster area to help salvage damaged collections

•         collection managers of disaster-related resources

•         information facilitators to public and health care professionals/communicate with public library

•         internal planners with hospital administration (let managers know what librarians can do in a disaster)

•         government partners (e.g. internet access to fill out FEMA forms)

•         bibliographic searches to public and health care professionals

•         host sessions on emergency preparedness—invite speakers and bring in experts

•         assist with grant writing

On Monday of this week, we met with NN/LM staff at the South Central Region’s office at the Houston Academy of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center.  Michelle Malizia, Associate Director, and her capable staff made the meeting a big success.  Also attending were SCR’s state coordinators for emergency preparedness (see photo below). 

Following an outstanding breakfast, the group introduced themselves and then heard an update from Dan about the progress of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Project since last year when we visited Houston.  The remainder of the morning session contained the “train the trainer” session for the group about teaching the “10 Step Approach to Service Continuity Planning.”  The afternoon session consisted of a lively discussion of other issues to be addressed during this year, with many helpful comments and suggestions from SCR staff as well as the state coordinators.

We enjoyed seeing the SCR staff as well as all the state coordinators and hearing about activities in their region.  They maintain their close-knit network of information and support within the region, which is reinforced by the relative frequency of emergencies in the region due to hurricanes.

SCR Train the Trainer session

On Monday, Feb. 9, Dan and I had the pleasure of meeting with the NN/LM Pacific Northwest Region’s (PNR) staff, as well as the State Emergency Preparedness (EP) Coordinators for the region, and several members of the University of Washington’s Health Sciences Library staff. The meeting at the South Campus Center began with a review by Dan about the progress made with regard to the roll-out and implementation of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response plan since last spring, when we visited PNR on March 17. The PNR State EP Coordinators contributed information about the status of emergency planning in their states, some of the risks they face (tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes), some challenges in their areas (remote areas in Alaska, sparsely populated areas in Montana) as well as several incidents that have occurred in the past year. Following the updates, Dan facilitated a discussion of current initiatives and issues including MOUs and MAAs, service continuity training, NLM’s Emergency Access Initiative, use of the online toolkit, DOCLINE issues, and others. The afternoon session included a “train-the-trainer” session, in which Dan presented the Instructional Guide for training NN/LM Network members in service continuity, as outlined in the “10 Step Approach to Service Continuity” class. After the class, the State EP Coordinators and Gail Kouame, Consumer Health Coordinator and Chair of the EP Committee, met to plan initiatives for the coming year.

Following the meeting, a group of us went to dinner and were able to follow-up about the day’s activities. Gail reported that the EP Committee is energized, and had come up with lots of good ideas for promoting the Plan in their states. We look forward to hearing about their activities and the ways they will engage their Network members in emergency preparedness!

PNR State Coordinators: Bob Pringle, Washington; Kathy Murray, Alaska; Marcia Francis, Idaho; Dolores Judkins, Oregon; Laurel Egan, Montana

South Campus Center, University of Washington

Dan Wilson and I will be in Seattle on Monday, February 9, to meet with Cathy Burroughs, her NN/LM staff, regional representatives and others at the Pacific Northwest Regional (PNR) office of NN/LM at the University of Washington.  In the morning, we will be reporting on recent developments of the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response (EP&RP) initiative and facilitating discussion of regional issues.  In the afternoon, we will facilitate a “train-the-trainer” session for NN/LM staff and regional representatives to enable them to teach the “10-Step Approach to Service Continuity ” to their Network members. 

Other training sessions scheduled for this spring include the South Central Region in Houston in March and the Greater Midwest Region in Chicago in April.   Stay tuned to hear when the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan will be playing at a site near you!

“Dragonfly” image from PNR’s newsletter.

Yesterday, Dan and I presented a workshop on the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan, including an overview of the plan and training in the “10 Steps to Service Continuity” to the Tidewater Health Sciences Librarians (THSL).  The group that gathered at the Health Sciences Library at Riverside School of Health Careers in Newport News, VA, was very interactive, sharing difficulties experienced in the past and asking some great questions about how to be best prepared for possible future emergencies.  Since their area of the state is in the floodplain for storm surge and wind damage from hurricanes, as well being exposed to other risks, they have good reason to focus on service continuity to their patrons.  See a picture of the group in the Picture Gallery here on the Toolkit.

Last week was a busy one for Dan Wilson, Coordinator of NN/LM’s Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan.  At the Annual Meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter (MAC) of the Medical Library Association in Morgantown, WV (October 20-22), Dan spoke about the accomplishments and the continuing activities of the plan as part of the NLM/NNLM update to the meeting.  He highlighted the forming of the standing committee for Emergency Preparedness & Response for the Southeastern Atlantic Region of NN/LM, several of whom are MAC members.  He also presented the plan to the Hospital Librarians’ Symposium at the MAC meeting, noting that assisting hospital librarians to develop emergency preparedness plans is a focus of the national plan for this year. 

Dan participated, as an inivited speaker, in the first University of Virginia Emergency Preparedness Forum, held Thursday, October 23.  He addressed a group of UVA faculty and administrators, representing all departments of the university, showcasing the UVa Health Sciences Library’s efforts in emergency preparedness, but also highlighting his work with the NN/LM project nationwide.  We are pleased to be able to expand our interest in emergency preparedness to the larger university community here at UVa, and see it as a way to begin extending assistance outside health sciences librarianship.  Check out UVA’s new poster that gives an excellent quick view of what to do in an emergency:  Emergency Procedures

We visited Claire Hamasu at the University of Utah’s Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library in Salt Lake City on June 18 to meet with the MidContinental Region’s staff, both on site and via their web conferencing tool, Access Grid, to introduce the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response plan.  The morning session included Dan’s presentation followed by discussion of regional issues.  After a break for lunch, the group re-convened via Access Grid to conduct the table-top exercise, followed by more discussion and goal setting for the region.  Since the MCR staff is dispersed among the states in the region, they plan to use Moodle for further planning for training and promotion/marketing.  They see the plan as a way to create added value for hospital libraries in addition to providing a way to assist members in continuing essential services and recovering from disaster.

We visited the Pacific Southwest Region’s office at the UCLA Medical Center on June 20, meeting with Heidi Sandstrom, Judy Consales (Library Director), the PSR staff, and invited guests at the Louise Darling Biomedical Library.  All participants were available on site, and the meeting began with Dan’s presentation and some discussion of risks particular to the Pacific Southwest Region.  The Table-Top exercise was moved to the morning session to that the hospital librarian attending could play a role in the exercise.  Following a break for lunch at the library, the group discussed regional issues, including the collaborative environment among the resource and hospital libraries, activities of the three MLA chapters represented in the region, and ideas for promotion and marketing in the region.  They agreed that it would be helpful to locate a “point person” among their hospital librarians to be the standard-bearer for promoting NN/LM’s EP&R Plan, and plan to begin implementation almost immediately.

Both groups provided lively discussion and ideas for implementing the plan, and are well-positioned to get the word out to the network members in their regions about the services that are now in place for them in the event of emergency or disaster.

I am currently writing the reports for both meetings and will send them to Claire and to Heidi as soon as possible.  Many thanks to Claire, Heidi and all the other RML Associate Directors for their hospitality and for all the excellent planning and implementation of logistics, funding, etc. that made all of these meetings possible.  We enjoyed meeting all of the RML groups, and look forward to being able to continue to work with them as The Plan unfolds.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth of July!

We met with the South Central Region’s RML staff and state emergency preparedness coordinators on May 5 in Houston! My apologies to Michelle and her wonderful staff and the state representatives for the delay in reporting on the toolkit–it is purely a result of a lot of time away from the office as we visit other offices and attend meetings. We leave for the MCR and PSR regions next week, which will be the last ports of call for us. I’ll send the full report to Michelle as soon as possible; for now, here are highlights.

The SCR meeting was held at the Houston Academy of Medicine (HAM), beginning with introductions of RML staff and their state coordinators. All states in the SCR were represented: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Marty Thompson (University of Oklahoma) is the chair of the Emergency Preparedness working group for GMR.

Dan’s presentation focused on the risks that exist for SCR, who are, along with SE/A, the “unfortunate experts,” when it comes to having weathered disasters, particularly hurricanes and tornadoes. Houston Academy of Medicine (HAM) experienced its own disaster when the library was flooded during hurricane Allison in June, 2001, resulting in many “lessons learned,” and the writing and publication of the excellent book, Disaster Planning: a How-to-do-It Manual for Librarians, co-authored by HAM librarian, Deborah Halsted, as well as Richard Jasper and Felicia Little.

After reviewing the 4 scenarios on which the response plan is based, there was discussion about the region’s experience after Katrina, particularly, as well as other incidents. Ethel Madden, from Louisiana, told about the resources that were most needed in the emergency medical shelters after Katrina, which were all point-of-care for the first 48 to 72 hours. Michelle mentioned NLM’s progress with the Emergency Access Initiative, which is very positive and will be an excellent resource. Ethel noted that internet access was not available for weeks or months in some areas after Katrina. Marty recommended talking with CDC, particularly with regard to resources they have already developed for emergency response; i.e. a laptop loaded with resources for dealing with infectious diseases, etc. in disaster areas without internet access.

Discussion following the presentation addressed the roles of the RML staff who are assigned to the specific states and clarifying of how the communication can take place, as well as the use of MOUs within the region, and how the consortium of the resource libraries in SCR will incorporate the plan, hopefully putting this in place at a meeting this summer. SCR is fortunate in that its MLA chapter encompasses the same states as its NN/LM region, so they communicate and meet more frequently than in some other regions. AMIGOS provides information and training in their region, an excellent possibility for training opportunities for network members. Michelle noted that some public libraries in the region are better prepared for disasters than the academic libraries, and would be interested in pursuing relationships with them to promote a teamwork approach within the region.

The group discussed MOU development during lunch. Dan noted that while MOUs are not legally binding, they do provide information about informal partnerships, such as services covered and people who agree to help. The consensus was that in the SCR, MOUs will not be an essential part of the plan, because they already have strong partnerships among libraries and other network members, and have experience helping each other during disasters. Deborah added that many academic libraries went off-site after Katrina and were up and running with their online resources and services long before they were able to re-occupy their buildings.

The SCR RML and EP work group will promote the plan through its Fall 2008 meetings, and is formulating ideas for other ways to market it, especially the 1-800-DEV-ROKS (ROKS without a C!) number, to all network members.

The afternoon meeting began with a Table Top Exercise, featuring Rachel Gyore (University of Arkansas) calling as the librarian who experienced the disaster, and Michelle accepting the call for the RML. The group worked well together, with University of Oklahoma serving as the back-up library and providing laptops for temporary use at University of Arkansas while their equipment was being recovered or replaced.

In conclusion, the group talked about goals for year 3, which include: establishing a workflow for the RML office in response to a disaster, looking at the existing training options and exploring other possibilities for training, have some goals written into the network goals for the coming year, continue to explore ideas for marketing the plan, spread the word about the help that is available to members.

The meeting ended with a consensus that there are many possibilities for getting the word out about the plan, and the group will explore options. They will also re-visit some of the post-Katrina stories, and review progress made to this point. The SCR is already strongly networked among its members, very aware of the potential dangers that exist for the region, and strongly motivated to spread the word about emergency preparedness and response, so they will no doubt accomplish great things!

The NN/LM SE/A region’s Emergency Preparedness Committee met at the Vinoy Renaissance Resort in St. Petersburg, FL, on Wednesday, May 28, 2008. (The committee was added as a standing committee by the SE/A RAC in January.) State representatives attended from Puerto Rico, Florida (3), Alabama , Mississippi, Tennessee (2), Virginia and Maryland. Janice Kelly and Beth Wescott represented NN/LM. Janice began the meeting by providing a short history of the development of the committee and also of the national NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan, noting that six of the members of the new standing committee were also present at the initial meeting as a task force in Ocean Springs, MS, in February of 2007.

Dan presented an overview of the progress of the national plan, featuring risks specific to the SE/A region (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, as well as oil refineries, nuclear power plants, and other human-caused risks). Dan summarized the goals for network members by highlighting four features: risk assessment, human safety, preservation of unique resources, service continuity. Following the presentation, each member reported on their role in emergency preparedness at their institutions, and on the status of emergency preparedness in their states.

The remainder of the morning meeting was a “walk through” of a table top exercise, in which Dan outlined the various roles played within the plan in response to a scenario occurring in a hospital library. There was discussion about the roles within the four scenarios for response as identified within the existing plan. The roles for the state coordinators were identified as: (1) promote the plan, especially 1-800-DEV-ROKS (ROKS without a C), (2) promote opportunities for training (SOLINET, etc.), (3) promote the toolkit, (4) provide follow-up and reporting during and after an incident.

Dan also showed slides that Cindy Olney had provided of the results of the baseline assessment questionnaire that had been sent out earlier in the spring. The results show that there is much room to assist members in emergency preparedness. During lunch, the group discussed regional issues such as MOU development, opportunities for training, and ideas for promoting the plan. The meeting concluded after lunch with a discussion of goals to be accomplished by May 2009.

I’m in the process now of creating a new wiki for SE/A’s Emergency Preparedness Committee, and will add the full report, the membership list, and more pictures this week. We enjoyed meeting with all the state representatives, both the familiar faces from last year and the new members, as well as working with Janice and Beth again. The Vinoy Renaissance Resort was beautiful and very accomodating, a wonderful place to begin work on emergency preparedness for our region.