The Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is pleased to announce the release of their Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Plan. Produced by the Library’s Disaster Preparedness Working Group, the plan covers emergency procedures relating to the security of Library staff and patrons during health, fire, or weather-related emergencies. Also covered are the security and recovery of collections held within the Library, including the rare and unique items in UMBC’s Special Collections. Recovery procedures for a variety of material formats are included and workflows to prevent collections damage in the anticipation of an emergency have been developed. When possible, available guidelines and procedures were used in place of developing local practices. A Salvage Team will be established within the Library to provide recovery training and ensure that the plan remains up-to-date.  

The plan was developed by the Library’s Disaster Preparedness Working Group in consultation with the Library Executive Committee, and relied heavily on existing documentation provided by the Library Guidelines, UMBC campus policies, the Baltimore Academic Libraries Consortium’s Disaster Preparedness Plan (1998, rev. 2006), “Developing a Disaster Plan” Lyrasis workshop (2010), the Federal Library & Information Center Committee Preservation Institute (2009), and the Northeast Document Conservation Center’s Preservation 101 online course.

The Library’s Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Plan is available online at:http://aok.lib.umbc.edu/admin/DisasterPlan_2012.pdf [pdf]

Please direct any questions to Lindsey Loeper, lindseyloeper@umbc.edu or 410-455-6290.