WISER (Wireless Information System for Emergency Responders) is a mobile application from the National Library of Medicine designed to assist first responders in hazardous material incidents. The second release for WISER for iPhone/iPod touch is now available.  Investigate what’s new in this updated release: WISER’s Help Identify Chemical capability is now available on the iOS platform. Identify and validate an unknown chemical based on the following criteria: physical properties of the substance gathered by observation or sensors signs and symptoms of victims of exposure the ability to categorize a substance, such as a substance used in a meth lab or a flammable substance hazard values from NFPA 704 placards transportation identification, including DOT placards, type of road trailer, and type of rail car Use WISER’s protective distance mapping feature on your iPhone or iPod touch. Visualize the areas likely to be affected during the first 30 minutes after a substance is spilled or released on a live map. The Department of Transportation’s Emergency Response Guidebook is the source of WISER’s protective distance data.

(more…)

Overview

The Medical Library Association (MLA) is looking for up to five continuing education (CE) instructors/instructor teams to develop and teach courses on disaster information as part of a project to enhance its Disaster Information Specialization project.  Each instructor/instructor team selected will be responsible for developing one new disaster information course.  At the end of this project, 5 new courses will be added to MLA’s specialization.  (more…)

Part 1: Prevention & Preparendess
Seattle: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 – 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: Odegaard Undergraduate Library Room 220, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Part 2: Response & Recovery
Seattle: Tuesday, May 8, 2012 – 9:00am – 4:00pm
Location: Odegaard Undergraduate Library Room 220, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

(more…)

The 2012 Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference will take place April 10-12, 2012 at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center.  It is the largest and most successful regional emergency preparedness conference in the Pacific Northwest.  Partners in Emergency Preparedness annually hosts nearly 700 people representing business, schools, government, the nonprofit sector, emergency management professionals, and volunteer organizations. (more…)

Submitted by :
Ann Dixon, Director, Homer Public Library
Carey Restino, Coordinator, Friends of the Homer Public Library

The Homer Public Library, in collaboation with the Friends of the Homer Public Library and local emergency responders, held a month of activities aimed at increasing the community’s emergency preparedness thanks to a $5000 NN/LM Community Preparedness Day Award.  Events, which were timed to coincide with national Disaster Preparedness Month, kicked off on September 21st with a special Story Time about safety and natural phenomena that occur locally, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. (more…)

NN/LM PNR is pleased to announce one more new funding opportunity: Disaster Health Information Outreach Awards.

The purpose of the Disaster Health Information Outreach Project is to design programs for improving disaster medicine and public health information access for health professionals, first responders and others (paid or volunteer) that play a role in health-related disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Emphasis is on providing information or access to health and medical information in a way useful to the target audiences, and increasing the awareness and utilization of high-quality professional-level online medical and public health information resources on disaster, all-hazards, and emergency topics including resources from the National Library of Medicine. The purpose is also to promote new and creative collaborations on disaster health information needs among and to the mutual benefit of librarians, information specialists, or informationists and the disaster workforce.

Approved projects will be funded up to $15,000.

For more information, see the full funding announcement or contact Gail Kouame at gmarie@uw.edu or 206-221-3449.

Proposals will be accepted until February 1, 2012. However, if you plan to submit a proposal, we need a brief statement of intent no later than January 13, 2012 to help our planning process. Please submit your statement of intent to apply to nnlm@uw.edu.