Preservation Plan by MayDay Steps 2010
In January 2010, LYRASIS Preservation Services began publishing easy steps that a library, archives or other cultural institution could follow in order to create a Disaster Response Plan by MayDay 2010. A new step was presented every 2 weeks on
LYRASIS’ blog, the
Preservation Field Service’s Facebook page and in
LYRASIS News. This page is a presentation of all the published steps.
Step 1: Planning
Step 2: Assessment
Step 3: Identify Essential Services
Step 4: Assess Salvage Prioroties
Step 5: Collect Recovery Procedures
Step 6: Select a Disaster Recovery Team and Bring Together Resource Lists
Step 7: Fill out PReP™ Template – Keep working on your resource lists
Step 8: Choose a sample disaster plan that best fits your agency’s needs and start writing
Step 9: HAPPY MAYDAY!
Step 1: Planning
With a new year come resolutions and goals. You are anxious to get started writing or updating the disaster response plan for you library, archives or museum. But before you begin, you need to organize your thoughts and resources.
Locate a copy of your existing disaster plan, whether it is comprehensive disaster response and recovery plans or a simple procedural checklist. It may be that departments within your agency have their own plans. Be sure to check with the maintenance and IT staff. If your cultural institution is part of a larger supporting agency or cooperative, get a copy of their disaster plans as well. As a county library – obtain a copy the emergency response plan for the county. If you are part of a college or university, get a copy of the university’s plan. You get the idea. It may take longer than two weeks, but having this information will be beneficial when who write or update your plan.
Now to organizing your people resources: developing or updating a disaster plan is a great deal of work. Share it. Whether you call it a committee, a team or a working group, identify those who have a vested interest in the disaster preparedness of your institution. Who has the information and authority that you will need to support and implement your plan? Some suggestions are the chief administrator of your agency, a member of the buildings and maintenance staff, an IT person and representatives from any other departments in your institution. Including a staff member familiar with the finance and purchasing procedures of your agency is strongly recommended. Don’t forget to seek out a representative of your governing organization if you have one. You may want to consider a member of your advisory board and a member of the wider cultural and/or business community. They too have an interest in the longevity and accessibility of your collections and will bring a different perspective to your plans.
Take time to identify your possible disaster plan committee members looking both at their position or role in the institution and the individuals themselves. The people you ask to work with you should be a resource and a sounding board, as well as support for the over all disaster readiness of your cultural institution. Be cognizant of the time you are asking them to invest. Be clear and be prepared to set timelines and deadlines and to stick to them, but be flexible, too. Also make sure you have clear channels of communication and ways to easily share information.
And finally, identify the goal of your plan. Are you looking to create a comprehensive disaster response plan or do you need to address a specific type of emergency? Have you had problems with a leaking basement? Has your area been prone to wild fires? Are you experiencing frequent power outages? Are you planning a construction project? There are many possibilities. A great way to approach possible planning committee members is engage them in the conversation about your current state of emergency readiness and to discuss the goal of writing or updating your disaster response plan. You may have an idea in mind, but discussions can help crystallize the goal.
As mentioned earlier, this planning may take longer than two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan.
Step 2: Assessment
You began gathering existing information and organizing your planning committee in Step 1. You also started to address the goals for your disaster plan.
Step 2 is assessment of risks.
There are different kinds of risks. We will start with nature. Think of the weather patterns where you are and what sort of severe conditions are probable for your area. Are you in Tornado Alley or a hurricane prone coastal area? Do you live in an area that has experienced wild fires? Also, think of the surrounding topography and its impact on your institution. What risks do you face being near a river or a mountain? Remember - what has happened in the past is likely to happen in the future.
Other risks are manmade. Are you near an airport, rail lines, or major thoroughfare? Could you be impacted by a transportation accident? Are you near an industrial area where there are potentially hazardous chemicals? Information on risks in your region may have already been compiled. You should contact the risk managers for your parent organization and regional emergency management of your city or county. They may be the same people who have the area’s disaster response plans.
The goal of the assessment process is to help you focus on your surroundings and your readiness to respond to emergencies.
An assessment needs to be done of your facility as well. You need to think of the physical structure and functions of your building and the inherent risks therein. An assessment may uncover situations that can be easily remedied, but require a regular maintenance schedule such as easily clogged drains or gutters. It may also alert you to potential problems: an aging water heater or cracked flooring. Other conditions may be highlighted that need to be addressed in the disaster plan, for example, having no fire suppression system.
It is important to get input from your facilities manager or staff. Ask them what concerns they have about the building. They may have very current assessments and maintenance schedules for the building and systems. It’s likely they will share. If your cultural collection is housed in a multifunction building, talk to the other tenants as well. You have a shared interest.
Get other staff involved. Engage the cleaning personnel in a discussion of what they see when they clean. Have they noticed consistent troubled spots? Encourage the staff to look critically at the space they move through every day. Use this as an opportunity to take a different path from the front door to staff room or the public service desk to the photocopier. This will get people thinking and test your lines of communication as well.
Risk assessments can take many forms. Check with your parent and associated organizations; they may have an assessment tools and procedures in place that you could use.
One assessment tool you may find useful is the LYRASIS Preservation Services Leaflet entitled Disaster Prevention and Protection Checklist.
This easy to use assessment form addresses the building and the surrounding areas as well as the collections areas.
As much as we would like to plan for every possible contingency – the goal of risk assessment to decide what is most likely to be a problem in the future.
Assessments may take longer than the two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan.
Step 3: Identify Essential Services
In step 1, you began gathering information about your cultural institution’s current state of readiness and finding people to assist you. In step 2 you started assessing your building and environment. Now, for step 3: you must identify the services that are essential to the operation of your organization. Some are internal and some will be public.
After a disaster strikes it is unlikely that you will be able to function normally for a time, but you still need to continue key business operations and services in order to recover. What are your essential operations and services? Some internal operations and services may include human resources, finance, and communications. Your organization may have others. For the public services you need to identify what it is you do best – what are the services and collection that your constituents use most frequently? Another way to put it – the restart of this service would indicate that you are recovering. This is part public relations: part resumption of services.
Talk with the people you have tapped to work with you in the planning process. Get their views. Get input from heads of departments. Brainstorm. They may each have a favorite (Take note of them because you will need those for the next step) but what you are looking for is the commonalities – what do you all need?
This step may take longer than the two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan.
Step 4: Assess Salvage Priorities
In step 3 you were asked to identify essential services; the functions you need to get up and running first to best serve your staff and public. In step 4 we are going to address another priority. What are the salvage priorities of your collection? This includes the vital records of your agency and well as the jewels in your stacks.
Let’s talk about your vital records first. What records are necessary to support the functions you identified in step 3? What records are not backed up off site? These records should be on the top of your salvage priority list. This could include personnel records, shelf lists, accession records, and insurance documents. These are just examples; every agency will have its own. I would encourage you to find ways to back up these vital records. Perhaps you could make some sort of reciprocal agreement with an agency in another city or state. That way you can concentrate on recovering your collection.
What collections are integral to your mission? What collections are unique to you institution? What collections are the most fragile? Think not only of those individual items, but think in terms of whole collection areas. Do you have unique local history materials? Do you have runs of historic journals that are not easily replaced? Again, these are examples; every institution will have there own priorities. For many of us there are no research collections or rare items in our holdings, just materials that we would like to keep in an accessible state for our patrons. What then is the most fragile?
As you identify those records, items and collections – take note of their location. If you have just a few hours notice, can you quickly get those key collections out of the harms way? Or if you have limited access to an area of your institution, can you identify for others the things that you would like them to retrieve?
This is again time to refer to the policies of your organization; this includes your mission statement, collection development policies and any joint collection agreements you may have with other agencies. Also talk with your colleagues; they may identify items and collections that you hadn’t considered.
Why am I asking you to identify collection and records priorities? Here are three scenarios that may explain why. Think of what you would need to do if you knew that the near by river was likely to flood overnight. You have been told that evacuations begin in 3 hours. Is there any thing that you can do to reduce the possible damage to your collection? Perhaps move those vital records from their basement storage area. If you have identified the priority materials in advance – you know what you can do after you have seen to the needs of your visitors and staff.
Another scenario is that you get the call that your building now has a hole in it because a storm blew a tree through the windows and now water is pouring in. The first responders are willing to help you deal with collections near the hole, but they have limited time as they may be called to another emergency site do to the storm. Can you quickly identify the collections that would be best served by quick removal?
The last scenario: there has been a fire in your institution. Three quarters of your collection has smoke, heat and water damage. Are there collections of greater significance to your institution than others? What would you deal with first?
We are not trying to frighten you with the bad things that can happen to your collections. The purpose of this step is to identify those parts of your collections and vital records that would be the best served by your limited recovery dollars.
This step may take longer than the two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan.
Step 5: Collect Recovery Procedures
If you have been following along; you have assessed the potential risks to your building and collections, identified essential services, and named your salvage priorities. Now its time to look outside of your agency and find recovery procedures that could be used if disaster really strikes.
What would you do with soggy books or drawers of wet microfilm? How would you recover items from a foot of mud in your basement? Start looking at salvage and cleaning procedures with an eye to the easiest way to recover your materials while mitigating further damage. You need to keep in mind the physical requirements of the procedure and the resources available to you. (We’ll talk more about resources in the next step.)
There are many resources available in print and online. Below are links to disaster preparedness and recovery web resources. This is a starting point. As you begin looking, it may seem overwhelming, but start with a few recovery procedures. Now that you know where to look, you can always find more later on.
If you come across disaster response and recovery plans that intrigue you or seem to mirror your agency – save them as well. You will be getting a start on a future step.
This step may take longer than the two weeks we are suggesting, but start today and be on your way to a Disaster Plan.
Step 6: Select a Disaster Recovery Team and Bring Together Resource Lists
You and your committee are not finished accumulating information--there are still things you will need to know for your disaster response and recovery plans. It is now time to identify your Recovery Team. Who will respond to the emergency or disaster? These will be the people who actually do the recovery, lead volunteers, and set about reclaiming your collection and resuming operations. You have been examining recovery procedures, so you have some idea of what tasks need to be preformed. The recovery team may be some of the same people you have on the planning committee.
Our first impulse is to name the chief administrator to be the lead of the recovery team, but the administrator may need to be dealing with the public and other outside agencies that keep your institution running. As you pick your recovery team, think also in terms of the personalities and physical abilities. You may even consider their proximity to your library. Being on the Disaster Recovery Team doesn’t mean that they will do all the work by themselves, but they will need to train and lead others. Another note about the Recovery Team, they need to have the authority to access your facility and make decisions.
The next part of Step 6 is the development of Resource lists; some of this is information you may already be available from other departments of your agency, some of this may be new. Think of this as “who do you need, what do you need and where is it?” You are compiling these lists because you want to give your staff one place to look for information and you are providing alternatives and back ups because you don’t want the one person who knows to be on vacation, camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
A Communications Plan:
This answers the question, “Who do you need in order to respond to an emergency?” This includes the contact information for your chain of authority, your departmental phone trees, and the contact information for your recovery team. You may also want to include your initial response procedure here. Who does your staff call first? It also should include a list of who needs to be notified at the campus, local and state levels. If possible have alternative contact information. Some find it useful to collect alternative staff contact information with an eye toward possible regional evacuations. Also, identify the basic ways in which you share information with both your staff and your users: phone message, press release, banner on your website. Consider including alternative modes of communicating – it is possible that in a regional disaster the phones and internet access may be down.
Vendor List:
When you are making this list, think not only of your local glazier, plumber and elevator repair service, but think of national recovery companies or consultants that may be of assistance if you have a major disaster. Look back at your salvage priorities and make sure you identify those vendors that could address your unique collections. Remember, simply putting a vendor on your list does not make them your vendor. Some one in your institution has to make contact with these service providers and talk about the possibility of them working with you. Often, there is no fee associated with making this sort of contact and it is best done before the water pipe bursts. Some of these vendor service relationships may already be in place. You will need to identify who has the authority to contact a vendor in times of emergency – that may be part of your communications plan.
Supply List:
These are the supplies you will need for recovery. You have identified some recovery procedures, what supplies are called for? We are not suggesting that you stock pile every possible item that was listed in the recovery procedures you have chosen, but it is wise to keep some things in house at all times. This includes plastic sheeting, mops, buckets, flashlights, batteries, paper towels.
Sample of a supply list: LYRASIS In-house Supply Stockpile Checklist
You don’t need to all your supplies on hand, but you do need to include possible sources for these items. Include both local and national options. Check the catalogues of your current suppliers. Check with your local hardware stores. This is a great time to get to know your neighbors in the business community. Talk with the local dairy about the possibility of borrowing crates for wet books or a local grocery warehouse about renting freezer space should the need arise. It’s a good way to get you staff involved as well. Once you have identified your needed supply item – people may have some creative ideas for sources. The recently published ALA edition Emergency Response Planning in College Libraries, edited by Marcia Thomas has some great examples.
Finance Information:
Access to financial resources is key to every effective response. It may not be the first item, but you need a way to pay for the additional supplies or the plumber. Check with your administrative office and see if there is a way to modify the purchase order process for cases of emergency. You will also need to inform your insurance company. You may not need account numbers, but identifying the insurance company and bank as well as contact names at each will be very helpful. Including people in your Disaster Recovery Team who are authorized to access the services of the insurance company and bank is vital.
Facilities List:
Bring together the floor plans of your institution. These do not need to be detailed architectural drawings. Identify the locations of security system panels, fire alarms, fire extinguishers, utility shut off valves and any codes or keys necessary for access, shut off and resetting. Sometimes people include their communications and computer connections as well. Identify where the recovery supplies are stored and any hazardous materials that you may have. Don’t make this so complicated that it is difficult to use, but do make it clear enough that it can be used by any staff or emergency respondent.
This is a great deal of information and will take time to accumulate. It will be used in the next steps.
Step 7: Fill out PReP™ Template – Keep working on your resource lists
We all want a disaster response and recovery plan that addresses every contingency and perfectly represents our individual organizations. This is difficult and time consuming, and our effort to respond to all things sometimes stops the emergency preparedness process. In 2006 the Council of State Archivists (CoSA) made available the Pocket Response Plan (PReP)™. It was designed to be a concise, easy to use and carry document that would present the vital first response information your staff will need. As they say on their website, “[E]very person having a response-related assignment should carry a PReP with them at all times.”
CoSA provides links to three versions of the document – State Archives & Records Management, other governmental agencies, and a generic form that you can modify for your needs: http://www.statearchivists.org/prepare/framework/prep.htm.
LYRASIS has modified the PReP template to address possible needs of libraries.
As you go through this document, you will see fields for local and regional emergency response agencies. Within the LYRASIS leaflet Disaster Prevention and Planning, you will find links to state emergency management agencies, Community Emergency Response Teams and FEMA.
The beauty of this document is that you can make it your own. Some institutions have inserted a simplified floor plan; others have included quick recovery information on a variety of material formats and department specific phone trees. As you fill in the information from your resource lists, you can choose what works best for you and easily modify it as your needs change.
LYRASIS has had envelopes made to hold a PReP document. Fill out the template, send us a copy and we will send you envelopes to put them in.
Step 8: Choose a sample disaster plan that best fits your agency’s needs and start writing
As you have been following the steps towards a disaster plan, you have been collecting a great deal of information about your institution. Now it is time to put it into an organized usable form. It may be that you need to use the disaster plan format of your parent organization, or you may choose one of your own. And as with the PReP™ template, you can begin to insert your information into an existing format. There isn’t one format that will work for every agency, but there are elements that we recommend be included. These are illustrated in the LYRASIS leaflet Contents of a Disaster Plan.
To see how different libraries and organizations have brought together these elements, take a look at the disaster plans compiled by Conservation Online (CoOL).
Look at these with a view to what might work for your agency. The recently published ALA edition Emergency Response Planning in College Libraries, edited by Marcia Thomas is another helpful source. There are many others examples of disaster plans available online and in print.
A great source for the creation of your own disaster plan is dPlan from the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) and the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC). It is an easy to use tool to develop and store your disaster plan. It was designed for cultural institutions of all sizes to assist in the generation of a usable disaster plan. You can customize your disaster plan by using the sections that work for your agency.
There are two things to remember as you begin write your plan. 1) Start small – deal with basic information and processes that can be translated to different types of emergencies. You can add more to your plan over time. 2) The format you start with may not be the format you end with. As you work with your document, it will be necessary to make changes.
MayDay is now two weeks away. Schedule a meeting of your planning committee and other interested parties. You want to able to bring together the PReP™ plan and your proposed disaster plan and to talk about the editing, approval, implementation, testing and modifying of your disaster plan.
LYRASIS Preservation Services are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access.
Step 9: HAPPY MAYDAY!
You may not have completed all the steps – that’s okay. Keep working on it. There can be many parts to a disaster response plan. Not all the parts need to be completed in order to share and evaluate what you have done so far.
Try walking through your proposed procedure. Send a test message through your communications tree. Run a collections recovery exercise. Talk with your regional Emergency Management Coordinators and First Responders; they may be able to help you with reviewing your plan and provide training opportunities. Some sections of your plan may not work as well as you hoped, but they can be modified. For the parts that worked well – build on them. Share them with your colleagues and neighbors.
A key thing to remember is that you can have a perfectly written plan, but until it has been adopted by your organization as part of its policies and procedures, it is not a disaster plan. You need to have the support and authorization to take the steps you have laid out in your plan. This is not always an easy thing – that’s why you formed your committee. Share the efforts.
We have been asking you to accumulate a lot of data and then organize it in such a way that it becomes usable information; completing a disaster plan for your institution. But this has been bit of a cheat. Disaster plans are iterative; you will never have a final version. You are working in a dynamic institution that is always changing. Your disaster plan will need to reflect those changes. You will also experience a disaster at some point; evaluating your plan after the event will make your disaster response plan that much better.
Like the other policies and procedures of your institution, your plan needs to be reviewed and modified regularly. Mark your calendars now: Review Disaster Response Plan MayDay 2011.
The offer stands; LYRASIS Preservation Services will gladly review your emergency plans. Also, send us a copy of your completed PReP form and we will send you envelopes in which to carry them.
Reminder: ALA Preservation Week May 9-15
Again, thank you for following along.
LYRASIS Preservation Services are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Division of Preservation and Access.
