Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery in School Libraries

When disaster strikes, school librarians can play a key role in keeping kids safe. This is the only book written specifically to provide school librarians with emergency preparedness and recovery tools as well as curricular tie-ins.

No school is immune to disaster, whether in the form of a natural event like a tornado or a tragedy like the violence that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The key to minimizing injury or death in an emergency is preparedness-something the school librarian is uniquely positioned to lead. This must-have book will show you how to be proactive in getting your school ready for the worst. It provides comprehensive preparedness and recovery plans, check lists, and curricular recommendations on preparedness that can be tailored to your individual library and community.

Covering natural disasters, human-made disasters, and school violence, the book shows you how to conduct drills, assess vulnerabilities and risk, communicate preparedness plans, and use bibliotherapy for disaster recovery. It also describes how your library can be a safe haven for students who feel disconnected, bullied, or otherwise disenfranchised. Although the book is primarily intended for school librarians, classroom teachers will also find many ideas here for helping students be better prepared for disasters, whatever their cause or severity.

Auteur

Christie Kaaland, EdD, is Core Faculty in the School of Education at Antioch University Seattle, USA. She designed, launched, and chairs Antioch University's graduate school library certification program. She is co-author (with William Lokey) of Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Recovery in School Libraries: Creating a Safe Haven (Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited, 2014). Kaaland is a former associate editor of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals. In 2021, she won the Washington Library Association President's Award.