The National Network of Libraries of Medicine

Guide to Service Continuity Planning

Step One: Assess Risks

Make a list of events for which your library could be at risk. Talk with long-term staff at your library and gather anecdotal information about emergencies or disasters that have happened in the past, and add to the list such emergencies as fire and bio-terrorism that may not have happened but which can happen anytime and anywhere. Check federal, state and local emergency preparedness web sites for more information about potential emergency events (FEMA, Department of Homeland Security, your parent institution).

Step Two: Determine Your Essential Services

What services are most critical to your users? Interlibrary loan? Bibliographic searches? Reference help? Think of all the services that you offer and then prioritize them based on users’ needs. The services at the top of your list are your core services.

Step Three: Plan for Continuation of Your Essential Services

Take your list of core services and develop strategies for maintaining access to these services from an off-site location. This off-site location may be either from someone’s home or from a temporary location away from your building. Partner with another library for assistance with continuing your essential services in the event of a disaster. Create an MOU that details what assistance will be provided.

Step Four: Determine Your Essential and Unique Resources

Will your users still have access to essential resources such as UpToDate, MDConsult, and StatRef if your library is inaccessible? Are there print resources, such as core textbooks, that your users might need in the aftermath of a disaster? Do you have any unique resources, such as institutional records or historical materials that would need to be recovered?

Step Five: Develop a Continuity of Access Plan for Your Essential Resources

Devise plans for maintaining access to essential online and print resources during and after some kind of disaster. Would your server continue to function on back-up power, and continue to host your home page in the event of a power outage? How long would back-up power be available at your hospital?

Find or create a floorplan (see example below) for your print collections and then color-code the locations of your essential print and/or historical materials based on level of importance. Determine which of these collections you would spend money (might be lots of money!) to recover. Contact a commercial salvage company (such as Belfor USA or BMS) to get an idea about how much it would cost to recover your materials, should freeze-drying, mold abatement, or other services be required.

From Collection Preservation in Library Building Design, University of California, Berkeley, 2004

Step Six: Memorize 1-800-DEV-ROKS

1-800-DEV-ROKS (ROKS without a ‘C’) connects you to your Regional Medical Library. Call this number in the event that your services are disrupted in order to initiate the NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan. (Also contact your backup library.)

Step Seven: Drill

Create drills to test your plan. (We recommend table-top exercises or scenario based training.) Focus specifically on how your users will be able to access important services and resources in the event of a disaster.

Step Eight: Review and Update

Review and update steps on a quarterly basis. An easy way to do this is to update your plan within a couple of weeks of a change in season.

(Revised May 13, 2008)