Table Of ContentDisaster Planning for Libraries
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Disaster Planning
for Libraries
Process and Guidelines
Guy Robertson
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON
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Dedication
To Deborah
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to Chandos and Elsevier for their patience, assistance and support. In
particular, I should like to thank Harriet Clayton, Fenton Coulthurst, Jonathan Davis,
Glyn Jones, George Knott and Geraldine Lyons.
I am pleased to acknowledge the contributions of my interviewees, who gave me
their time and numerous useful insights.
I am grateful to colleagues and friends including Ted Baker, Heather Forbes, Elaine
Goh, David Goldie, Hilary Hannigan, Drew Lane, David Leggett, Melany Lund,
Maureen Phillips, Nancy Richardson and Diane Thompson. David Barker and Chris
Galloway gave me different perspectives on risk management. I received technical
advice and fresh viewpoints from Bob Gignac, David Miller, the late Bud Mills, and
Michael and Barbara Weston.
The late Roy Stokes served as a teacher and mentor. His influence on my work has
been inestimable.
I appreciate the assistance that I received as I conducted the research for this book,
and thank the following institutions:
• The British Library
• The British Museum
• The Justice Institute of British Columbia
• Langara College Library
• Library and Archives Canada
• The Library of Congress
• New York Public Library
• Thurber Engineering Ltd.
• University of British Columbia Library
• Vancouver Public Library
• Winnipeg Public Library
Lastly, I thank my wife Deborah and daughter Amanda for their encouragement,
diplomacy and proofreading.
I am grateful to all who have contributed to my book. Any errors are my own.
Preface
You are a librarian.
You are the Director of the New York Public Library, or a cataloguer at a small
college outside San Francisco. Perhaps you hold a high administrative position at the
Bodleian or the National Library of Scotland. Or perhaps you run a school library in
northern British Columbia.
In fact you might work in any library in the world. And one day your superiors
tell you that your library needs a disaster plan. They might use a different term, such
as ‘contingency plan’, or ‘business resumption plan’ or ‘continuity plan’. There are
numerous terms for what is essentially the same thing: a plan that will protect your
library’s staff, collections, facilities and other assets before, during and after a danger-
ous and damaging event.
A comprehensive plan will take into account the prevailing risks to your library. It
will be clear, concise and easy to understand. It will also be developed in a way that
will interest readers - that is, everyone who works at your library - and encourage them
to become involved in the testing of the plan and any training that it calls for.
Your plan should also be flexible and open to revision and updating. No disaster
plan is complete and perfect; all plans could be better in some way. That is why you
will hear disaster planners refer to plans as ‘living documents’, a term that implies
that those documents could be revised at any time to meet changing needs. Planners
will also tell you - repeatedly - that plans are not products, but processes. A three-ring
binder crammed with emergency telephone lists and first-aid advice is almost useless
during a real disaster. In threatening circumstances, what will safeguard your library
are the protective measures that you and your colleagues have rehearsed and are pre-
pared to take: often simple and commonsensical actions that long and complicated
documents might not mention.
This book is a response to requests from colleagues, clients and students over the
past 30 years for information on various aspects of disaster planning. I have outlined a
general process that a reasonably well-experienced and competent librarian can follow
to develop a plan for almost any kind of library. Much of this process could be adapted
for the purposes of archives, records centres, bookshops, museums and galleries. All
of these institutions face certain risks, including fire, flooding and severe weather, and
all must be vigilant regarding security risks.
I offer this process with several caveats. Firstly, I do not cover every risk that threat-
ens libraries and other information organizations. To do so would result in a much
larger (and probably multi-volume) work. Secondly, I describe one process only, and
there are a number of others. That which constitutes the content of this book has been
effective and field-tested numerous times all over the world; I recommend it in part be-
cause it has saved many institutions from serious losses. Thirdly, what I emphasize in
xvi Preface
the following pages exemplifies my personal and professional biases. I was trained as
a bibliographer and rare materials specialist, and shortly after I graduated from library
school, I became a consultant. A writer with different training and experience might
have concentrated on different risks and alternative ways to mitigate those risks. He or
she might have focused more attention on IT or climate change or the conservation of
digital resources. These are worthy topics, but like any other writer, I can cover only
so much, and the wisest course is to describe and discuss what I know best.
To broaden the perspective of this book, I have quoted librarians and other infor-
mation professionals who have dealt with different sorts of circumstances, sometimes
in trying and potentially dangerous conditions. I have reproduced their remarks and
observations as faithfully as possible. I have also respected their anonymity, since
what they say might be misinterpreted and held against them. Unfortunately the truth
can be uncomfortable and potentially controversial when witnesses describe what they
saw during a disaster. While it is helpful to quote reliable witnesses, in my opinion it
is best to let them remain anonymous.
Finally, I cannot know the future. As much as I have delved into reports from risk
managers and insurance companies, and as much as I have reviewed the history of di-
sasters to a variety of information organizations, I cannot predict what will happen in
any library or other organization next year, or next week, or even a few minutes from
now. I can only consider the past and what it teaches us, and trust that it will hint at
what impends. I hope that this book will provide you with the process and guidelines
that you need for whatever is in store.
Guy Robertson
Vancouver, BC
A note on terminology
In this book, I have used ‘risk’ in the singular as an all-encompassing term for risk
in general. Depending on the context, the term can also indicate a single and specific
threat such as fire, flooding or theft. Synonymous with risk in the latter usage are
‘danger’, ‘peril’ and ‘threat’.
For purposes of simplicity and clarity, I have used the term ‘disaster planning’
throughout. In the general field, this activity is also referred to as ‘business continu-
ity [or resumption, or recovery] planning’, ‘contingency planning’ and ‘emergency
[response, or management] planning’. While I have misgivings about the sound and
sense of ‘disaster planning’, I defer to common usage since most readers will be fa-
miliar with it.
Disaster planning comprises a series of procedures, plans and programmes that
enable organizations to prepare for, respond to and recover from negative events of all
kinds. For libraries and other information organizations, my recommended classifica-
tion of such events is as follows:
• An incident, for example a minor breach of security, a small loss of data or a minor injury at
a site.
• An emergency, for example a number of minor casualties, a small toxic spill or the loss of
valuable equipment.
• A major emergency, for example a serious casualty or casualties, extensive damage to a
building or equipment that will involve serious inconvenience, or a power outage that dis-
rupts operations for 24 hours.
• A disaster, for example any damage to the building(s) or equipment that will disrupt op-
erations for more than 48 hours, any natural event (for example, high winds, winter storm,
earthquake) that disrupts transportation or communications for more than 48 hours, or any
serious loss of vital data (for example, borrower data that have been lost).
• A catastrophe, for example a large regional disaster that disrupts conditions across an entire
region for an extended period of time, and that involves multiple casualties and the loss of
facilities.
• A crisis, for example an event involving negative media coverage and adverse public rela-
tions during or following any of the above circumstances.
All of the above-mentioned terms have been used in different ways by other au-
thors, organizations, professions and industries. I trust that readers will find my usage
helpful, even though they may prefer different terms.
How to use this book
If an emergency or disaster has occurred at your library and you do not have a plan,
remember that your top priority is human safety. Your initial task might be to contact
first responders – police, firefighters and paramedics.
If you have time, consult Figure 3.1, ‘Sample Emergency Response Plan brochure’
(see p. 23). You might also find the ‘Disaster Manager’s Kit’ in Appendix 4 useful.
Do not attempt to study these items in depth while there is any immediate danger to
you, your co-workers or anyone else in your library. Follow the directions of the first
responders.
In normal circumstances, you can use the different chapters and appendices of this
book to update your plan and to develop new material that is appropriate for your
operations. Since much of the material herein is generic, you should adapt it so that
it addresses your organization’s risk profile and site-specific requirements. Do not
hesitate to set aside material that is irrelevant.
If you are responsible for compiling a new plan from scratch, you can study this
book from beginning to end and extract the information that you need to complete
a draft. Your disaster plan will be a living document in that it will never be finished
or perfect. The need for revisions and enhancement will be constant, and there will
always be reasons to work on your plan. As your organization changes, so must your
plan. Thus, it is best to consider your plan a draft, and to be prepared to add, delete or
rewrite material regularly.
You can keep this book – along with any others concerning related topics – on your
planning shelf for future reference.
