Looking to the Future: Disaster Plan

(Appropriately for this week, the organization where I work began planning for disasters, including a possible flu epidemic.)

Disaster Plan: Flu Epidemic

With winter often comes cold and flu season, especially in an academic environment, where germs have ample opportunity to spread. Jones Library faces the possibility of having to deal with a large number of unexpected staff absences due to a widespread outbreak of the flu. This document plans to deal with such a situation.

In the event of a flu epidemic serious enough to cause a large number of staff absences (though not so serious that the campus is closed), the library director and department managers will meet regularly. In the event that the director or department managers themselves are absent, the next most senior staff will take their place. At these meetings, the director and managers will update one another on the current state of absences and determine which projects are the highest priority, generally projects with immediate deadlines, staffing the circulation and reference desks, etc. The director and managers will put all notes in writing so that should one of them become sick, the next most senior staff member will be able to immediately learn the current situation. The director will also keep the university informed about the current staffing situation at the library.

After determining which projects must be completed now, and which can be put off until more staff return, managers, with assistance from the director, will decide how to staff them. Absent staff members currently working on critical projects may still be able to do some work from home. If they are unable to, they will be asked to e-mail the manager with any important documents and a brief description of what needs to be done next. Managers will ask staff currently working on lower priority projects to temporarily work on higher priority projects instead. At weekly department meetings, staff will update one another on projects so that everyone will have at least some awareness of what the others are doing. If necessary, managers from multiple departments, with assistance from the director, will coordinate temporary “sharing” of staff.

Some of the more experienced students will be asked to to manage the desk so that regular staff can devote their time to managing on-going projects. Two students will sit at the circulation desk, with a staff member designated as backup to assist them as needed. Because a flu epidemic is likely to mean a decrease in the number of students as well, students will spend their time staffing the desk, checking in, and re-shelving books. Other tasks, such as shelf reading, searching for lost books, etc. will be put off until more students are available. Reference will limit the hours the desk is staffed, if needed, instead directing patrons to submit questions via e-mail or IM, which can be answered more flexibly. If a class is planned, the department manager will decide whether or not to still offer it, depending on whether or not the class was arranged with a professor, the number of students enrolled, and the availability of an instructor with the skills to teach the class. If the class is cancelled, all students enrolled will be e-mailed and notices will be posted on the library website and on the door of the room where the class was to be held.

Dealing with a flu epidemic will require some steps be taken before the crisis. IT will set up staff laptops for secure home access to the library network or provide instructions for set up if staff only have desktop systems at home. Once set up, staff who feel they are well enough to work but who may be contagious will be encouraged to work from home that day to prevent the spread of germs. At the beginning of the traditional cold and flu system, the student supervisor in the circulation department will schedule training sessions for experienced students on some of the more uncommon circulation functions (ex. adding a new patron to the database) to prepare students for possibly staffing the desk alone.