ALCTS announces a series of three webinars outlining the steps organizations should take to prepare for, plan, and recover from disasters. There is still time to register for all three sessions. The webinars begin at 2pm Eastern, 1pm Central, noon Mountain, and 11am Pacific time and are approximately 1 hour in length. All webinars are recorded and registrants will be sent a link to the recording at the conclusion of each session.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - Disaster Preparedness and Planning
According to the Heritage Health Index Report issued by Heritage Preservation in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, 78% of us are not prepared, putting over 1.6 billion items at risk in our libraries in the U.S. Preparedness is of utmost importance in the event of a disaster, large or small. Learn about the fundamentals of emergency planning which include identifying key players, assessing risks, establishing collection priorities, and other preparations for protection of your collections. Kraft will discuss tools available for and give tips on overcoming roadblocks to writing a disaster plan. Lessons learned in this session can be applied to any size institution.
Presented by Nancy E. Kraft, Head of Preservation at the University of Iowa Libraries where she is responsible for directing the preservation and conservation of the library collections. In 2009 she received the Midwest Archives Conference Presidents’ Award for her extraordinary work following the historic levels of flooding that struck Iowa in the summer of 2008. Kraft has assisted in many disaster recoveries, large and small, including the Iowa Floods of 1993 and 2008, the University of Iowa Old Capitol fire, the water soaked State Historical Society of Iowa building, and a mold outbreak in the Law Library’s rare book room. Kraft, a past President of the Iowa Library Association, is also active in the American Library Association where she served as Chair of the Preservation and Reformatting Section of the Library Collections & Technical Services Division, 2005-2006.
The second in the series – Disaster Response - will be held Wednesday, June 9, 2010 and the third session on Continuity of Operations is scheduled for Wednesday, August 18, 2010. For additional details and to register for one, two, or all three sessions, please see: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/webinar/pres/index.cfm
