Asia-Pacific Library and Information Conference 2018, 30 July - 2 August 2018 Gold Coast: Roar Leap Dare
This conference presentation (PowerPoint slides) supports the session on library disaster planning.
Major disasters such as fire, floods, earthquakes and terrorist attacks can strike library collections at any time and responding to such disasters is an integral part of library risk management. In the 21st century library collections are increasingly hybrid; not only do they contain physical materials, they also contain growing collections of digital materials. However typically library disaster plans focus on managing just the physical collections. The digital collections are managed separately; commonly the disaster planning role is assigned to IT systems.
The author was awarded an Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) research grant to investigate disaster preparedness for physical and digital collections in Australian national, state and territory libraries (NSLA) in the context of preservation management. The research investigated the potential for connecting the two areas through developing an integrated disaster plan that could align disaster responses across all collection formats—physical and digital. The author worked with experienced State Library of Queensland (SLQ) staff to develop a ‘proof of concept’ template for an integrated disaster plan, using the SLQ plan as a model. The SLQ was selected as an ideal organisation for the ‘proof of concept’ project as it has expertise and experience in responding to a recent disaster and its existing disaster plan was flexible and easy to access.
