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Librarians and Disasters, Disaster Information Management Research Center, National Library of Medicine

 

Disaster Health Information Outreach and Collaboration Projects
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has provided funding to organizations and libraries to design and conduct projects that will improve access to disaster medicine and public health information for health professionals, first responders, and others (paid or volunteer) that play a role in health-related disaster preparedness, response, and recovery.

Emphasis is on providing access to health and medical information in a way useful to all-hazards preparedness, response and recovery workers, and increasing the awareness and utilization of high-quality, all-hazards and emergency information resources. NLM desires to promote new and creative collaborations on disaster health information needs among and to the mutual benefit of librarians, information specialists or informationists and the disaster workforce.

Projects must have included at least one library or information center and at least one non-library organization that has disaster-related responsibilities, such as a hospital, volunteer organization, health department or other local, regional, or state agency.

2012 Awards - Contracts were awarded to seven projects for the period September 21, 2012 to September 20, 2013

2011 Awards - Contracts were awarded to seven projects for the period September 16, 2011 to September 15, 2012.
Disaster Information Specialist Program & Meetings
The Disaster Information Specialist Program is a collaborative effort to explore and promote the role of information specialists in the provision of disaster-related information resources to the workforce and communities. A conference call for those interested in disaster health related topics is held on the second Thursday of the month at 1:30 pm ET.
Disaster Information Outreach Symposium
This symposium for information professionals meeting disaster health information needs was held March 29 – 30, 2011, at the National Library of Medicine on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, MD.
DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB Listserv
This email discussion forum is for librarians, information specialists, and other professionals interested in disaster health information outreach to their communities. As a participant in this listserv, you can stay informed about current disaster-related resources, connect to colleagues in the field, engage in information exchange and learn about new ideas, trends, training opportunities, and conferences in the area of disaster health information.
Librarians and Libraries Respond to Disasters: Bibliography on Library Roles in Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery
This bibliography is a survey of the published literature and other resources on the role of librarians and information professionals in the provision of disaster-related information.
Tools for Librarians
  • Emergency Access Initiative
    The Emergency Access Initiative (EAI) is a partnership of the National Library of Medicine, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers and other publishers. EAI provides temporary free access to full text articles from major biomedicine titles to healthcare professionals, librarians, and the public affected by disasters.
  • NN/LM Emergency Preparedness and Response Toolkit
    This blog, edited by Dan Wilson, Coordinator, NN/LM Emergency Preparedness Project, (dtw2t@virginia.edu) is for resources, news stories, etc. of interest to NN/LM member libraries with a focus on:
    • disaster plans for library staff, collections and facilities
    • continuity of library services to its users when the library is affected by a disaster
    • NN/LM Emergency Preparedness & Response Plan
    • NN/LM Response Plan Flowchart
 

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