Professional Development

On Wednesday, September 12, the second portion of Solinet’s Hurricane Preparedness teleconference was broadcast. The Disaster Committee was given homework after our first session which consisted of completing a building survey checklist, which Scott Adair and I completed. This checklist involved checking electrical, storage areas, structural, office areas, housekeeping, building exterior, and fire and safety issues within our library. Scott and I even checked to see how far off the floor our lower range of stacks are (4 inches) and if the breaker boxes were labeled (yes they are).
The class in this second session covered the logistics of meeting a disaster situation head on. Issues of staff personalities and how that would affect recovery were mentioned using a barnyard analogy. During recovery, those can actually make it to the library are divided into teams who will sort, record, pack and photograph the process. Photographs can be very important in documenting the damage to individual items and spaces. They are also helpful if you have ‘before the disaster” photos on file. The instructor, Sharon Bennett, also covered security, safety and insurance issues

On Wednesday, August 29, members of the ZSR Disaster Committee gathered in the Tech Services Conference Room for a telecast workshop from Solinet. Hurricane Preparedness is something I’ve been interested in because North Carolina is in “Hurricane Alley”. Scott Adair, Leslie McCall, Mary Lib Slate and Craig Fansler attended the 2-hour session. The leader of the telecast was Sharon Bennett, an archivist from the Charleston Museum. We covered the importance of training and education for the staff, and the key elements necessary to have in your Disaster Plan. I’m happy to say that ZSR is current with the information Ms. Bennett suggested. She suggested having copies of the Disaster Plan off-site, and when I checked with Lynn, she already had a copy at home. I also promptly took a copy of our plan home. This telecast has 3 sessions, and we have homework! Scott and I are planning on performing a building survey with photographs this week.