Disaster Control Plan

Fostering a disaster management culture

Fostering a Disaster Management Culture will involve everyone, including the senior management in the library or archive and the release of resources in terms of time and money. It is essential that such action be taken for disaster planning to be effective within the organisation, particularly in the area of prevention. Planning should be approached with the worst-case scenario in mind. Preparation and resourcing for a large scale disaster can be scaled down to deal with minor disasters. The reverse does not apply.

The resources necessary to assure successful disaster planning will include:

• Cost of emergency stores.
• Cost of trolleys/bins to contain those stores.
• Staff time in preparing the Disaster Control Plan.
• Staff time in maintaining the Disaster Control Plan.
• Staff time in undertaking any action identified by the risk assessment.
• Financial costs of undertaking any action identified by the risk assessment.
• Staff time in training and testing the Disaster Control Plan.

Careful consideration should be given to the staff member(s) chosen to undertake the managerial responsibility for disaster planning, as only senior staff will have the access to resources and influence with senior institutional management necessary, to progress the plan. There are three distinct roles to be undertaken. These may be combined in a single person, especially in smaller institutions:

The Disaster Manager, who has budgetary control and liaises with senior institutional management and other departments; e.g. Estates, Finance and Security.

The Disaster Reaction Manager, who co-ordinates the immediate response to any disaster. This individual must be a senior manager in order that he/she has the necessary authority to deal with the situation. He/she must also be capable of remaining calm, decisive and level headed under great pressure. The Disaster Reaction Manager must also be able to communicate well, organise staff teams and have a good knowledge of the Library or Archive and its holdings.

The Disaster Recovery Manager, who undertakes those tasks leading to the restoration of the Library’s or Archive's services, e.g. bringing temporary accommodation or storage on line, activating access agreements, arranging for the disaster area to be cleaned and restored and overseeing conservation and restoration of damaged stock. This person will link the recovery procedures to the institution's business and service continuity plans.

Special Collections

Many institutions’ collections contain material that falls under the broad heading of “Special Collections”. Such material, by virtue of its uniqueness, rarity, significance or physical fragility, merits special attention in any Disaster Control Plan. It is particularly important for smaller institutions, where Special Collections material perhaps constitutes only a very small proportion of the total holdings and where no one member of staff is responsible for this material, to take account of the particular requirements of this rarest and most valuable area of stock. Special Collections may take many forms or formats; the list below is by no means exhaustive:

• Printed volumes, which may range in date from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries and can also vary greatly in physical structure (paper type, binding type, whether printed throughout or containing manuscript illuminations or inscriptions) and state of physical robustness.
• Manuscripts, which, again, may vary widely in date, type of ink or other substance used or physical format (codex, roll, single sheet, etc.).
• Archives or institutional records. These, again, can vary greatly in format (bound volumes, albums, folders, files, loose sheets, disks, etc.); material may be boxed, mounted in bound volumes or enclosed in envelopes or may be without any protective housing.
• Photographs (negatives, slides or prints).
• Works of art (on paper, on canvas, sculptural, etc.)
• Artefacts (which may be textiles, ceramics, metalwork, etc.)
• Maps (flat or rolled)
• Audio-visual material (tapes, LP records, CDs, rolls of cinematic film, videos, DVDs, etc.)
• Microform (film or fiche).

The special requirements of whichever of these formats an institution’s collections contain should be borne in mind at all stages of the compilation of the Disaster Control Plan.

Press and media relations

During a disaster the media can take up a great deal of time and will search tenaciously for a "good story". They can also be very helpful in disseminating information, e.g. on temporary services. Larger Libraries may wish to consider appointing and training their own Press Officer, although the latter role will be undertaken by the relevant department in many institutions. All enquiries from the media should be directed to the Press Officer, who will need to recognise and fulfil the needs of journalists as far as is consistent with the work in progress. The Press Officer should liaise with the Disaster Recovery Manager.

The Press Officer should make use of the following publicity channels:

• Notices on the doors of all site libraries or reading rooms.
• Press releases.
• Library and Information Science and Archivist's professional press.
• Email discussion lists and bulletin boards.
• Letters to volunteers and Friends organisations.
• The institution’s home page.
• Letters to sponsors and funding bodies.
• Notification to other libraries or archives from which referrals are regularly received.

(Adapted from London Guildhall University, Academic Services, The Fawcett Library, The Fawcett Library Disaster Plan. Prepared by Christine Wise. 1995-6. Revised 1997.)

Conclusion

Almost all library staff and archivists of any experience will have been involved either in a disaster (major or minor) or in a near escape. Although it may be easy to engage initial interest, it can be difficult to maintain a level of awareness and enthusiasm over the long term. Management attitudes, a written Disaster Control Plan, a training programme based on that plan and adequate resources should combine to foster a Disaster Management Culture and equip staff to be in a state of readiness should a disaster occur.

Copyright and disclaimer

© M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries. Original content 1997 by Susan Baker. Enhanced and edited 2001 and 2004 by members of the M25 Consortium Disaster Management Group. Whilst the authors have endeavoured to ensure that this template will work in the way intended, it should be understood that it is provided for guidance only. No undertakings, express or implied, are given concerning the use of the template or the commentary, and neither the individual authors nor the M25 Consortium will accept liability for losses which might arise, either directly or indirectly, from the use of the template.