NOVAD’s website lists America organizations, faith-based and otherwise, which provide disaster relief and many support services. Membership includes Lutheran Disaster Response, United Way, Adventist Community Services, the American Red Cross, County Emergency Management Agencies, FEMA, Pharmacy Associations, Associations of Food Banks, Humane Associations, and the Salvation Army, to name just a few.

You can find contact information and links to the web pages for each organization at the NOVAD site. Check your state’s listings to see whether there’s a group you can contact as a resource, or perhaps you would like to volunteer to help out in your area.

There are also valuable resources listed from their “Member Tools” link and their “Links” directory. You may wish to contact some of their members to link to them from your local preparedness page.

SoliNET is offering a variety of classes on disaster planning and preservation techniques over the next couple of months. For those of you not in SoliNET, you may pay a somewhat higher non-member registration fee.

10/19/07 Developing a Disaster Plan (Live Online) http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?doc_id=3004&WKSHPID=12DDP

11/01/07 Risk Management: Knowing Your Responsibilities (Self-Paced)
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?mode=preview&doc_id=4587&WKSHPID=12RMK

11/29/07 Care and Handling of Library Materials (Live Online)
http://www.solinet.net/workshops/ws_details.cfm?mode=preview&doc_id=4060&WKSHPID=12CHM

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/podcast/transcript072307.html

It’s the dreaded season when hurricanes form in the Gulf of Mexico (and the Atlantic Ocean) and smash the U.S. coastline and surrounding states with driving winds, water and occasional floods. Hurricane Katrina taught millions of Americans (the hard way) never to be complacent and always be prepared for natural disasters.

So, let’s talk about some emergency preparedness information and resources — so when time is short, you will be ready.

To listen to Dr. Lindberg’s comments, click here.

http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2007/nhatlaspr.htm

The Department of Health & Human Services’ (HHS) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released Emergency Preparedness Atlas: U.S. Nursing Home and Hospital Facilities, which is intended to help local communities identify the health care facilities (hospitals and nursing homes) that could be available and prepared to provide assistance under emergency conditions in their communities.

Dan Wilson and Susan Yowell continue to offer suggestions for emergency preparedness at the Disaster Planning for Health Sciences Libraries blog. Number 16 in the list are tips on preparing for hurricane season.

Hurricane season housekeeping reminders: about the only upside of a long hurricane season is that we have some time to prepare, since it seems that most of the big storms don’t really get themselves together until later in the summer for the Southeast USA, however, we know one can happen anytime! Aside from the procedure for hurricane preparedness that’s in our disaster plan, here are some things we can all be doing now “just in case”:

• Make sure all your contact information is current, both for your staff and your vendors and other support organizations or people. Many people use only cell phones now, and their telephone numbers change more often than in the past when everyone used a “land” line.

• Check your disaster supplies: make sure there’s plastic sheeting for covering books and equipment, duct tape, and any other supplies you might need to protect your collection and facility.

• Check out the ProText disaster supplies site; they sell supplies and also offer tips on salvage techniques for water damaged materials.

• Check the SoliNet site for a list of vendors providing salvage services such as de-humidifying, freezing, etc.

• Walk around your library and note whether any collections have been re-located since the last time you updated your plan. Revise your salvage priority list if need be, i.e. if you had two hours to remove your most important materials from your library, do you know what you would take, how you’d pack them up, and where you’d put them?

• Think about what services, if any, you could offer from off-site in the aftermath of a hurricane. Can you arrange to access your library’s information from home? Is there a way to continue to provide help to your patrons with information/research needs if your library space isn’t available?

• Especially if you live in an area that is “hurricane prone,” such as Wilmington, NC or just about anywhere along the Gulf Coast and Florida, make sure you have a “Go Pack” ready at home in case you need to evacuate. Check your state’s emergency management website or the Homeland Security site for a list of what to keep ready at home.

• Remember the Regional Medical Library! Have RML contact information at hand, and at home, in case you need to send up a flare for help from the Regional Medical Library for your area; 800-338-7657.

Be sure to check on Disaster Planning for Health Sciences Libraries for more tips and specific instruction for such things as dealing with water damage.

In May, 2007, Dan Wilson and others at the University of Virginia and the UVA Health System gathered a team of library managers and devised strategies for maintaining certain essential library services during emergencies or disasters. The team identified four different scenarios and made tables of the policies and the procedures developed for each eventuality.

• Scenario A: Building not habitable (damaged or closed due to epidemic) or staff not able to get to the site (severe storm), power up and internet available
• Scenario B: Building not habitable, no power, no internet
• Scenario C: Building habitable, power on, no internet access
• Scenario D: Building habitable, no power, no internet available

Naturally, this document will be updated often as personnel and technologies change, but feel free to adapt anything helpful to your own plan. The full text is available at: http://dtw2t.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/continuing-essential-library-services.doc