Houston Mission Successful

Deborah, Shari, Dan and I met for the day on Thursday, November 15, at the Houston Academy of Medicine’s library in order to further the progress of the National Emergency Preparedness Plan by focusing on development of the toolkit which will be available to all NN/LM members, and to further discuss training options for the plan. We enjoyed a beautiful day at the Texas Medical Center, including a sumptuous Thanksgiving feast, to which the library’s staff graciously invited their visitors.

Highlights from the meeting:

• Dan presented a PowerPoint that provided some background for the project and summarized the progress of the national plan so far
• Renée Bougard, Associate Director for the South Central RML, and Michael Boer, Assistant Director, Web-STOC, NN/LM, from the University of Washington, were able to attend part of the morning meeting, which was helpful to the working group because of the insights and experience they contributed
• discussed disaster/emergency scenarios and risks identified for the regions as a background for what would need to be included in a national toolkit
• enumerated additional ideas for library preparedness: salvage priority charts, information “crash” carts, “grab and go” lists of items needed from work to be able to work from home, etc.
• discussed with Michael the logistics of running the toolkit on the NN/LM web site
• toolkit planning: tentatively adopted idea of using a blog as the platform for the toolkit because of its capacity for gathering resources, searchability by category or keyword, and accessibility to all
• discussed possible design elements for a toolkit blog, possibly using the “Disaster Planning for Health Sciences Libraries” blog as the template
• analyzed the existing blog in terms of adapting it for an NN/LM toolkit
• discussed options for training libraries in emergency response using the class that Deborah and Julie Page taught at the South Central/MLA meeting in Albuquerque as a basis

Dan will be presenting the results of the meeting to the Associate Directors for their feedback and approval. Stay tuned for further developments!

  L to R: Michael Boer, Shari Clifton, Susan Yowell, and Deborah Halsted

New CE Course on Disaster Preparedness

Deborah Halsted and Julie Page have been putting together a new CE course on disaster preparedness. They will be teaching the class on October 20th at the South Central Chapter of the MLA annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Here’s a description of the class:

Before Disaster Strikes: Essential Steps in Disaster Preparedness

When the pipe breaks, the fire starts, or the hurricane hits, what will you do? The effectiveness of your response and the success you have in restoring services and collections will be the result of how well you have prepared. Learn what you should do and who should be involved before faced with a disaster, in order to protect people, prevent damage, and provide the best possible outcome.

The course will cover the following:

• Key steps in disaster preparedness
• Building collaborative relationships
• Components of a disaster plan
• Preparation of a Pocket Response Plan
• Group exercise in response to a scenario
• “Exercising” your plans; staff training and drills

Medical Reserve Corps

The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), a specialized component of Citizen Corps, is composed of medical and public health professionals who voluntarily respond to emergencies, both natural and man-made. According to the MRC website, you may volunteer if you fall into one of the following categories:

• Practicing, retired, or otherwise employed medical professionals, such as doctors, nurses, emergency medical technicians, pharmacists, nurses’ assistants, and others.
• Public health professionals.
• Community members without medical training can assist with administrative and other essential support functions.
• United States citizenship is not required to be part of the MRC. Non-citizen, legal U.S. residents also are welcome to volunteer and contribute their time, knowledge, and skills to protecting and improving their communities.

Here’s a map of MRC units across the United States:

Here is a diagram of Citizen Corps and its units (click on image to enlarge):

National Preparedness Month

As many of you know, September is National Preparedness Month.  The Department of Homeland Security maintains a nice page that contains scheduled events and a Preparedness Tip of the Day.

Ready to Roll to the Rescue

Even though our library is not in an area prone to experiencing hurricanes or flooding, we, like everyone, experience the occasional incursion of water into places it shouldn’t be.  In order to expedite getting salvage materials to the site of the incident, we have adopted a practice we heard about from Holly Robertson, Head of Preservation at Alderman Library, University of Virginia.  We’ve purchased a plastic cart to hold our “quick response” materials:  water absorbent “socks,” tri-fold paper towels for interleaving, a flash light, duct tape, plastic sheeting, scissors, paper and markers, latex gloves, etc.   The cart is readily accessible to the areas most likely to need it.  Most office supply stores offer a variety of carts–look for one that won’t be damaged by water, that rolls easily, and has shelves with sides on them so your supplies won’t slide off when you move the cart.  It would be nice if it also had a flashing light and a siren on it, but we can’t have everything…

Disability Preparedness

The Department of Homeland Security has a web site with information on how people with disabilities can prepare for an emergency.  The site contains a page on work related preparedness.

Highlighting MOUs

Despite all our best foresight and planning for possible emergencies, sometimes we are all going to need a little help from our friends!  Check out this document as a great example of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between HSLs for help in emergencies.  If you have experience establishing MOUs or actually using one that you had in place when disaster struck, please add a comment here, or send along an example (ssy2n@virginia.edu).  

Drip, drip, drip…

‘Tis the season in the South!…..thunderstorms with torrential rains and strong winds, hot, muggy days that make air conditioning systems work overtime…all contribute to increased risk for leaking roofs, doorways, windows, and pipes and for flooding from blocked drains, construction sites, etc.  Here are a few suggestions for catching these situations before they become catastrophes:

• conduct a daily inspection of any areas where water has come in before.  Any stained ceiling tiles?  Any musty smell?  Any condensation build-up on exposed pipes or ductwork?
• keep an eye on the weather forecast
• ask your Facilities maintenance people to check outside drains to make sure they are clear of debris
• if you don’t know already, find out what kinds of rooms are on the floors above your space (if any) and whether they pose a threat of leaking water into your space
• replenish any disaster supplies that might be needed, such as paper towelling, rubber gloves, masks, buckets/mops 
• if you don’t already have any absorbent “socks” for soaking up water off the floor, order them! (a site:  New Pig)
• make sure you have current phone numbers for your response team and for the Facilities people at your institution
• know how much you can do yourself, and whom to call for back-up (commercial salvage companies, conservation organizations, etc.)
• here’s a helpful regional resource from the CCAHA listing companies that provide all sorts of materials for salvage and preservation activities:  Mid-Atlantic Resource Guide for Disaster Preparedness

Wake-up Call!

Check this out!  Did we think that our procedures are fine for shelter-in-place?  Take a look at this document from the “Redefining Readiness” work group, authored by some very well-spoken people from the New York Academy of Medicine.  Having any procedure is better than none, I suppose, but the questions raised by this document are as good as “lessons learned” before the event happens!  Back to the drawing board we go!

Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness

Funded by the Center for Disease Control, the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness provides learning opportunities for public health workers. The site includes preparedness tips, training opportunities, and news headlines.