Supporting Library Staff in Emergencies and Natural Disasters

Abstract

In times of crisis, public libraries, in addition to health, fire, and police departments, are community outreach centers and sources of credible information. Since 2015, three situation-specific studies examining disaster information dissemination and services provided by public libraries have been conducted by research teams from the University of South Carolina's School of Information Science and the South Carolina State Library. The results show that the public libraries in the areas affected by disasters created disaster-recovery centers, illustrating the libraries - value in facilitating emergency response and recovery. However, the findings also show public librarians were not fully prepared to provide disaster and health information for adult users, especially through online venues. It is recommended that public libraries provide reliable, user-friendly disaster and health digital resources for adult users. Public librarians can use social media network sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to increase awareness of these library resources and to distribute real-time messages of interest. Continuing education programs and professional development opportunities need to be developed and delivered to better prepare professional librarians to provide disaster and health information services