Salvage at a Glance

Given the fact that Tropical Storm Ernesto is making his way through the Carolinas today, I thought it was a good time to talk about Disaster Plans and Collection Recovery.

At the State Library this year, we revised our Disaster Plan. We formed an Emergency Preparedness Taskforce that met several times to pull together current information about hurricances, tornadoes, fires, flooding, power loss, evacuation procedures, workplace violence, etc... If your library does not have a plan, you should make it a top priority to put one together. Chances are, you already have a lot of the procedures in place, you just need to document them. If your library has a plan, check the date on it. Has it been over a year since the last update? If you're anything like us, it may have been ten years since the last update! So, here are some resources to get you started in creating or updating your plan:

ALA Disaster Preparedness
As with most ALA guides, this provides several links to valuable resources and federal regulation information.

dPlan -- The Online Disaster Planning Tool
This is a FREE online tool that guides you through the process of writing a disaster plan. It basically allows you to fill in the blanks. Then you provide site specific content where necessary. I've tried the demo and it's very easy to use. You can register from this page and you will receive more information about using the tool within 48 hours.

Writing the Disaster Response Plan: Going Beyond Shouting "Help, Help!"
This is an article taken from the Proceedings of the 9th Annual Federal Depository Library Conference. It doesn't matter whether you are storing federal documents or not. It provides a lot of great "things to consider."

Even if you are not the one responsible for writing a disaster plan, you may very well be responsible for recovering the collection should a disaster occur. Therefore, you may want to consider adding a "Salvage at a Glance" directory to your library's plan. This can provide a quick reference for anyone who may be assisting with disaster recovery. It should explain the salvage techniques needed for various types of items and highlight the areas of the collection that are highest in priority. In our plan, we added the Salvage at a Glance directory and a Salvage Priority List to the end of our plan.

Finally, you should consider attending a training on records management and/or disaster recovery. These are offered periodically by PALMCOP and by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. They are generally low in cost and you will get hands-on experience with recovering water-damaged materials.

If you have further questions about writing a disaster plan or about disaster recovery, please let us know. In addition, the State Library has set up an email alias for public libraries to report any disaster that occurs in their library system. To report a disaster, write an email to disaster@statelibrary.sc.gov. This email goes to myself, as well as the Director of Library Development and our State Librarian. We are happy to assist you by sending supplies or by traveling to help your library should a disaster occur.

Thanks for reading and be safe getting home in Ernesto this evening!