Information Roles in Disaster Management

1. Information Roles in Disaster Management Day 1 July 18, 2012 1300 – 1400 CT Robin Featherstone, MLIS Liaison Librarian (Medicine) Life Sciences Library, McGill University robin.featherstone@mcgill.ca Course materials: http://www.mlanet.org/education/dis/info_roles.html

2. Activity 1 • Consultyourcompletedhazards checklist • Usingyour chat box, share: • yourgeographic location • the threehazardsyouidentified

3. Agenda DAY 1 Disaster information specialists Disaster management HOMEWORK: Reflection exercise DAY 2 Librarian roles HOMEWORK: Tabletop exercises

4. Disaster Information Specialization 1 www.mlanet.org/education/dis What is it? Medical Library Association continuing education program funded by the National Library of Medicine All program courses and activities earn MLA continuing education credit and may also be used toward AHIP How much does it cost to students? It’s free! Who can participate? Anyone.

5. Disaster Information Specialization 2 How do I take a course? In-person and online (all available online) What courses are there? Basic level: Disaster Health Information Sources: The Basics US Response to Disasters and Public Health Emergencies Information Roles in Disaster Management National Incident Management System, an Introduction Introduction to Incident Command System Advanced level: Disasters in an International Context Ethical and Legal Aspects of Respons A Seat at the Table: Working with Local Responders CBRN [Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear] and Hazmat Information Resources

6. Disaster Information Specialist 3 Provides disaster-related library or information services as part of their ongoing job functions Possesses knowledge and skills to support disaster management Does more than protect library collections and maintain library operations

7. Selected Continuity of Operations Resources NN/LM Emergency & Preparedness Toolkit http://nnlm.gov/ep/ Halsted, Deborah D., Richard P. Jasper, and Felicia M. Little. Disaster Planning: A How-to-Do-It Manual for Librarians. New York: Neal-Schuman, 2005.

8. Objectives At the end of the webinar, you will be able to • Identify members of the disaster workforce and understand their patterns of information use • Identify professional roles for librarians during all stages of the disaster management cycle • Articulate how librarians historically viewed their roles in disasters • Recognize the valuable roles librarians have played in disaster management

9. Definitions Disaster: a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using only its own resources. Emergency: a situation that is out of control and requires immediate attention. Event: an occurrence that has the potential to affect living beings and/or their environment; a realization of a hazard. http://www.wadem.org/guidelines/glossary.pdf

10. Disaster Categories

11. Disaster Management Cycle

12. Disaster Workforce Licensed or trained Paid or volunteer Permanent or as-neededworkers … whoplay a definedrole in… All-hazardspreparedness, response and recovery In implementingEmergency Support Functions 6 & 8: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-esf-intro.pdf Mass care, Emergency Assistance, DisasterHousing & Human Services; Public Health and Medical Services

13. Disaster Workforce: Licensed/credentialed health professionals (ESAR – VHP, 2011)

14. Disaster Workforce: Additional licensed or trained professionals

15. Selected core & sub competencies for disaster medicine and public health 4.0 Communicateeffectivelywithothers in a disaster or public health emergency 4.1 Identifyauthoritative sources for information in a disaster or public health emergency 4.3 Identifystrategies for appropriate sharing of information in a disaster or public health emergency (Walsh et al., 2012)

16. Disaster Health Information Peer-reviewed scholarly literature • Journal articles • Books “Grey” Literature • Reports • Summaries • Surveillance data • Training materials • Conference proceedings

17. Role of Social Media “Clearly, social media are changing the way people communicate not only in their day-to-day lives, but also during disasters that threaten public health.” (Merchant, 2011)

18. Information use by disaster preparedness professionals • Influenced by their training • Viewed information as a decision-makingtool • Considered information to include observable environmental data and conversations • Relied on social networks and the Internet • Revisitedtrustedorganizational sites (i.e., CDC) (Folb, 2011)

19. Desired information types • Peer organizationexperience, lessons-learned documents (case studies) • Standards • Operations, procedures, manuals • Legal, regulatory • Grants, funding • Potential local hazards • Vulnerable populations • Emerging hazards, novel events • News • Current conditions (Folb, 2011)

20. What do emergency managers see as the roles of librarians? 1 • Creating and maintaining taxonomies with expert input • Serving as a clearinghouse of knowledge concerning the different aspects of disasters • Equipping libraries to access real-time emergency telemedicine networks • Working with specialists to identify high-quality information • Developing easy-to-use methods of delivering specific content (Turoff & Hiltz, 2008)

21. What do emergency managers see as the roles of librarians? 2 • Producing annotated bibliographies and syntheses • Participating in call centers taking questions from the public • Developing FAQs for local emergency preparedness and response and making them easy to locate • Assisting in text and data mining, aggregating and compiling information to support public health decision-making • Sharing expertise with those in developing countries through an international network of librarians and archivists (Turoff & Hiltz, 2008)

22. Recommendations for librarians • Become part of the network • Partner with trusted organizations • Get involved in pre-career training (Folb, 2011) • Be part of your organization’s disaster plan • Monitor information using alerting services • Be strategic in your communication plan – consider audience capacity and use appropriate technologies • Evaluate your services (Featherstone, et al. 2012)

23. Homework - Activity 2 • Read the article by Erik Auf der Helde, The Importance of Evidence-Based Disaster Planning • Reflect on his recommended interventions (summarized on the handout labeled Activity 2) • Identify a professional service you could provide

24. References Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Public Law 93-288 as amended), http://fema.gov/about/stafact.shtm Donohue, A. (May 21, 2012). Emergency Preparedness and Librarians: A Match Made in Hospitals! Poster Presentationgivenat the Medical Library Association Conference, Seattle WA FEMA (2012). TabletopExercise. Accessed April 7, 2012 from:  http://www.epa.gov/ogwdw000/watersecurity/tools/trainingcd/Pages/intro.html, Featherstone, R., Boldt, R., Torabi, N. & Konrad, S. (2012). Provision of PandemicDisease Information by Health Sciences Librarians: A Multisite Comparative Case Series. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 100(2), 104-112. Accessed May 12, 2012 from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3324800/ Featherstone, R., Lyon, B. & Ruffin, A. (2008). Library roles in disasterresponse: an oral historyproject by the National Library of Medicine. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 96(4), 343-350. Accessed April 3, 2012 from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2568836/

25. References cont. Folb, B. (March 30, 2011). Information Needs and Practices of DisasterResponseProfessionals: Findings and Implications. . [Presentationgivenat the Disaster Information Outreach Symposium, Bethesda, MD). Accessed April 2, 2012 from: http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=10102 Merchant, R.M., Elmer, S. & Lurie, N. (2011). Integrating Social Media into Emergency-Preparedness Efforts. NEJM. 365(4). 289-291. Turoff, M. & Starr, R. (March 6, 2008). Information SeekingBehavior and Viewpoints of Emergency Preparedness and Management ProfessionalsConcernedwithHealth and Medicine. [Report prepared for the National Library of Medicine]. Accessed April 2, 2012 from: http://web.njit.edu/~turoff/Papers/FinalReportNLMTuroffHiltzMarch11.htm Walsh, L., Subbarao, I., Gebbie, K., et al. (2012). CoreCompetencies for DisasterMedicine and Public Health. DisasterMedicine and Public HealthPreparedness. 6(1), 44-52. Zach, L. (March 30, 2011). Librarians’ Perceptions of Roles in DisasterActivities. [Presentationgivenat the Disaster Information Outreach Symposium, Bethesda, MD). Accessed April 2, 2012 from: http://videocast.nih.gov/summary.asp?Live=10102

26. Image Credits Planning the programmes.jpg image by David Brewer: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Planning_the_programmes.jpg Radiologist in San Diego CA 2010 by Zackstarr: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Presentation Slides & Course Materials http://www.mlanet.org/education/dis/info_roles.html Program Information http://www.mlanet.org/education/dis/ Acknowledgement This project is funded by the National Library of Medicine under contract HHS-N-276-2010-00782-P

27. QUESTIONS