News and Events for the SE/A Emergency Preparedness Task Force

August 21, 2007:  Robert James has been invited to speak on writing a disaster plan at this conference:

"Before Disaster Strikes: Networking to Protect Our Records" is a one-day conference sponsored by the North Carolina State Historical Records Advisory Board and the North Carolina State Archives, scheduled for November 14, 2007 at the North Carolina State University McKimmon Conference and Training Center in Raleigh.  This conference will focus on the importance of building networks among emergency management agencies and cultural institutions that hold official records, special collections, and documentary materials.  Registration is open to personnel in emergency management; state, county, and local government;, archives; record centers; libraries; museums; historic sites; and other collection institutions.  

August 17, 2007:  Dan Wilson has been appointed Coordinator of the NN/LM National Emergency Preparedness Plan.  In that role, Dan will be working with leadership from the eight regional groups to develop emergency response plans, increase networking opportunities, and finalize a plan to be implemented nation-wide.  The target date for announcing the national plan is the first week in January 2008.  Stay tuned for updates about developments in the process!

June 27, 2007:  Dan Wilson presented a Webcast through the SE/A RML site on Emergency Preparedness in our RML.  (The slides from the PowePoint part of the presentation are linked to the blog at this point, but will be removed in the future to save space.)  Forty nine librarians logged into the site to hear information about what our task force has accomplished so far, and what plans are being made now.  The emphasis was on the importance of identifying essential services and resources, making contingency plans for providing services from off site, developing MOUs as well as informal partnerships within the region and nationally, and memorizing the new toll free number to the RML for obtaining assistance (800-DEV-ROKS).

June 15, 2007:  Robert James and the ANCHASL group presented a wonderful day-long conference on disaster planning for health sciences libraries in Raleigh, NC.  Speakers covered a range of topics, including a presentation by Walter Cybulski from NLM on how to salvage water-damaged materials.  (Check the Disaster Planning Blog for details about the meeting, June 18 posting.)  Robert spoke on how to write a disaster plan, focusing on the use of the Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel from Heritage Preservation.  Dan spoke and showed a PowerPoint presentation on the RML's role in supporting disaster preparedness activities, focusing on the activities of this task force and the plans in development.  One meeting participant had come from Massachusetts to find out what is being done in our region.  Meeting participants were very appreciative of the efforts being made to assist them in preparing for, and dealing with emergency/disaster situations. 

News note:  the Task Force is changing its name to the SE/A Emergency Preparedness Task Force!

May, 2007:  Wanda Whitney has resigned from the Task Force.  Janice is seeking a replacement for Maryland at this point.

May 22, 2007:  Dan Wilson and Susan Yowell presented a disaster planning poster at the Medical Library Association annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

April 5, 2007:  Wanda Whitney of the Harrison Library, Johns Hopkins University, has accepted the Maryland position on the Task Force.  Welcome and thanks for volunteering, Wanda and Fay!  We are now fully "staffed" again.

March 29, 2007:  Fay Towell, Library Manager/Archivist at the Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center in Greenville, South Carolina, has agreed to serve as the Task Force representative for South Carolina.

March 28, 2007: Sandy Oelschlegel is working with the THeSLA group (the health sciences library consortium for Tennessee) to develop a disaster planning CE course for September 2007, to be held in Nashville.

March 28, 2007:  Robert James is coordinating a disaster planning class through ANCHASL (consortium for North Carolina) to be held on June 15 in Raleigh.

March 15, 2007: Toni Yancey of NN/LM has invited Dan Wilson to provide an SE/A webcast on the accomplishments of the Disaster Planning Task Force, to be held in June.

March 9, 2007: Dan Wilson, Chair of the task force, will be attending the RAC (Regional Advisory Committee) meeting at NN/LM on April 9, 2007. He will provide the committee with copies of the Report of the Ocean Springs Meeting, and will solicit feedback with regard to the goals established at the meeting.

March 7, 2007:  Nic Cecchino, the task force's member for Maryland, has resigned his position on the task force because he has accepted a position at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center. He completed the library assessment for Maryland and presented the results at the meeting in Ocean Springs. His last day at Johns Hopkins will be April 13, 2007.