Anniversary of Late December Blizzard 2010
Tuesday, December 27th, 2011Last year at this time a blizzard had just dumped up to 30″ of snow in parts of New England. Here’s a time-lapse video of the snow accumulating on someone’s back deck.
Archive for the ‘Severe Storm’ Category
Forecasting Winter Weather
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011NOAA has released a new winter precipitation forecast product. Officially called the HPC Winter Weather Desk, the product creates 24-hour forecasts of snowfall and freezing rain for up to three days in the future. Click the following URL to view the product: http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/pwpf/wwd_accum_probs.php?fpd=24&ptype=snow.
Winter Storm Update
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011Many libraries are closed today from Oklahoma to New England. Academic health sciences libraries closed today include, University of North Texas/Fort Worth, University of Oklahoma, University of Kansas/Kansas City, Saint Louis University, University of Missouri (Columbia and Kansas City), and the Library of Health Sciences/Chicago. The Greater Midwest Region of the NN/LM is closed today and all calls are being forwarded to their buddy RML in Los Angeles.
Click on image to enlarge.
Major Winter Storm
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011A major winter storm will be impacting libraries over the next two days from Texas to Maine. Currently, some academic health sciences libraries have closed in northern Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Other closings are anticipated as the storm moves northeastward. You can keep track of closing announcements by following NEPRTimes on the left side of the Toolkit.
Map credit: accuweather.com
Great Opportunity
Thursday, January 13th, 2011The severe winter storm that affected (and still affecting) the Midwest, South, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeast, gave libraries in these regions a great opportunity to activate their service continuity plans. If you don’t have a plan, this is a good time to prepare for the next major service disruption. (Resources to help you can be found on our Writing Your Disaster Plan page.) If you did have a plan, how did it go? Would you change anything? If so, this is a good time to make those changes.
Here is a NOAA satellite view of the winter storm. Note the similarities of a hurricane. (Click on image to enlarge.)
Planning for Your Next Service Disruption
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) recommends that all libraries create a response plan based on the Pocket Response Plan (PReP) that was developed by the Council of State Archivists (CoSA). This is a one-page plan that can be kept in a purse, a wallet, or a mobile device, so no matter where you are you will be able to manage a response and keep your core services available to your patrons. The template below was designed for health sciences libraries, but it can be adapted to any type of library. Questions? Please contact us (http://nnlm.gov/ep/who-we-are/).
Service Continuity PReP: http://nnlm.gov/webreports/ep/uploads/2008/02/SCPrep0310Public.doc
Good Example of a Inclement Weather Services Web Page: http://www.library.uams.edu/inclement-weather.aspx
Service in the Storm
Monday, January 10th, 2011The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Library has their “Inclement Weather” page up on their website today, due to the winter weather sweeping across the South. Check it out here: http://www.library.uams.edu/inclement-weather.aspx. The page is a great example of how a library can be closed, yet still interact with its patrons and continue to provide the services they need. Note the variety of services that are still available, from self-service options like their 24 hour study spaces and Interlibrary Loan to direct research help by a librarian via email, and updates via FaceBook and Twitter.
