[Libs-Or] Library Emergency Plans...did anybody use theirs?

[Marci Jenkins]

Good morning Mr. Greiner

Those a very good questions! My personal take is that the majority of us librarians acted very Ad-hoc when we first officially found out about COVID 19, (nothing wrong with that), some of us are tied to hierarchic decisions. I get it. I believe the virus timeline started in December of 2019 in China ( I can be wrong about this statement) but perhaps, if librarians specially on the East Coast large populated cities were earlier instructed to take action closing the libraries other public institutions would follow the lead. Again, I believe (not sure and I'm sorry I did not have time to properly research this info) New York Public Library first closed its doors due to the COVID 19 on 03/12.

The bright side of all this is we have metrics to work with. Now, we probably know we need to strength our information capabilities supporting ALL our demographics, we need to provide solid and efficient online materials, promote and offer training to our patrons so they can take advantage of them, the list is enormous, but overall I believe, we need to work on best practices on all levels to deal with all sorts of unexpected situations.

Hope you and your loved ones are safe and well

Marci

From: Libs-Or [mailto:libs-or-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Tony Greiner
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 10:14 AM
To: libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: [Libs-Or] Library Emergency Plans...did anybody use theirs?


This message originated outside of the City of McMinnville.

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About a dozen years ago, I believe after a hurricane did major damage to the University of Hawaii library, there was a lot of talk about libraries creating emergency plans in case of catastrophes.  That eventually faded away, but I am curious:

a.  Did your library create a plan?
b.  Did you follow it with the Covid-19 shutdown?
c.  Did it include strategies for an epidemic?
d. Did it work?

Certainly the library I worked at had to put a lot of things together on the fly- maybe we can learn something from this experience that we can carry on to the next 'black swan' event.

Tony Greiner

**tony_greiner at hotmail.com**<mailto:**tony_greiner at hotmail.com**>
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