CONTACT: Charles McClure, (850) 644-8109; <cmcclure@ci.fsu.edu>

September 2008

FSU INSTITUTE TO STUDY PUBLIC LIBRARY HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Florida State University College of Information institute will help public libraries and local communities better plan for and respond to hurricanes, thanks to a $218,000 grant from the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center.

The Information Use Management and Policy Institute (http://ii.fsu.edu) received the award from the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center in the FSU College of Business. The institute will partner with the State Library and Archives of Florida, SOLINET (a cooperative of libraries in the Southeast USA), Florida’s Multitype Library Cooperatives, and public libraries throughout the region as well as federal, state, local and community agencies interested in Florida hurricane preparedness and response.

”This grant offers a great opportunity for public libraries to better demonstrate the range of services and responses they can provide during such disasters,” said FSU Francis Eppes Professor Charles R. McClure, director of the Information Use Management and Policy Institute.

Many Florida public libraries already provide a range of important hurricane and disaster preparation and response services and activities, even though they face challenging financial situations due to budget cuts around the state, McClure said. These services include providing residents access to the Internet to locate family members, helping them complete FEMA and other government forms online and assisting local officials coordinate emergency information.

However, there has been no systematic effort to identify these activities, best practices, guidelines and services provided or to better organize, coordinate and assist all Florida public libraries to provide hurricane and disaster planning and response services, McClure said.

The project will reduce the state’s overall risk by raising the readiness level of all the state’s public libraries to meet the challenges posed by these catastrophes. The project will:

• Identify and organize relevant public library hurricane related information resources, services, roles and best practices;
• Identify, aggregate, assess and organize successful individual Florida public library best practices related to hurricane preparedness and response;
• Develop model plans, standards, guidelines and recommendations, which will be made available via print materials and through a new, interactive Web site;
• Offer strategies to assist state and regional public library and government officials with disaster coordination and organization responsibilities; and
• Disseminate to Florida’s public libraries, agencies and other organizations, via print materials and the project Web site, resources, services, experiences, best practices, plans and guidelines to coordinate Florida’s public library managers and government partners to better prepare for and respond to hurricanes.

In addition, the Information Use Management and Policy Institute, together with SOLINET and the State Library and Archives of Florida, will hold a statewide conference in 2009 to report the study’s findings, share best practices and introduce the new Web site and other resource materials.

For more information or for those who have knowledge and experience in dealing with public library hurricane preparedness and response, please e-mail McClure at <cmcclure@ci.fsu.edu> or Joe Ryan, project coordinator, at <jzryan@earthlink.net>.

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