Are you prepared? Whether you work with a special collection in a local archive or museum, in a large national library or managing records for a healthcare agency, an emergency plan is critical to your organisation’s future. Dadson draws on a decade of experience and award-winning training in this essential practical toolkit, enabling you to respond quickly and effectively to flood, fire and other emergencies. Expert advice is interwoven with cross-sectoral and international case studies drawn from high profile and smaller and medium-sized organisations offering a breadth of relevant experience and advice. Regardless of your time or cost constraints this text will outline exactly how to minimise risk, tackle real emergencies and ensure business continuity. Each chapter guides you through the essentials including: an introduction to emergency planning in the information and heritage sectors getting started on your plan alarm raising and incident containment the recovery operation salvaging collections critical documents such as priority lists, floorplans and disaster kits business continuity and IT recovery ensuring the plan’s efficacy risk management and disaster prevention. Readership: This is the ultimate resource for all those who work with collections in libraries, archives, museums and historic houses internationally, whether large or small. It’s also an invaluable tool for records managers in companies, local authorities and healthcare agencies. Lastly it offers a concise introduction to emergency planning and response for international library and information students.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction Why is a plan important? Definition and terminology Will your existing plan work in practice? Writing an effective plan – how to use this book 2. Case studies Flood recovery at the State Library, Queensland, Australia The fire at the Royal Horticultural Society Lindley Library, London The New Zealand earthquakes Wider recovery from a river flood at the University of Sussex, UK Fire and flood recovery at Norfolk County Record Office, UK Impact of power loss on an archive service in a UK local authority Wider impacts after flooding to a university campus, including the archive Strategies for preparedness at the Library of Congress The Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 11 March 2011 and its impact on library and archive collections 3. Roles and responsibilities Introduction Emergency response activities Emergency Management Team roles Emergency Management Team additional roles Ensuring your Emergency Management Team works effectively 4. Incident control Introduction Categorized response? Uniform approach Immediate responses to water damage Immediate responses to fire Immediate responses to flood or storm warning Immediate responses to other types of incident 5. Planning the recovery operation Emergency Management Team meeting Tactics – in-house or outsource? Triage assessment Involving insurers Health and safety Ending the emergency phase 6. Collections salvage Planning salvage Stabilization and salvage strategy Moving damaged items Assessing damaged items Air-drying techniques Large-scale drying Fire and smoke damage 7. Supplementary content Personnel contact lists Priority lists Floor plans Emergency equipment External suppliers and utility companies Additional appendices Incident report forms 8. Dealing with the building Water damage Fire damage Preventative measures 9. Business continuity How to write a business continuity plan Effective communications 10. Ensuring the plan’s efficacy Making your plan user-friendly Plan distribution Plan testing Training Working with other sections of your organization Continuous improvement ConclusionBibliography and references