Preparedness, Response, and Recovery: Disaster Planning for Virginia's Public Libraries

This research is a study of disaster plans of public libraries in Virginia, and it serves to relay the importance of creating an effective disaster plan. Libraries were contacted in order to collect information on whether or not they had a disaster plan in place. Out of two-hundred and thirty-three libraries, sixty-four gave clear responses, and thirteen had electronically available plans. These plans were analyzed by examining two types of data: quantitative, such as presence of table of contents, number of pages, and creation date or last update, and qualitative, such as the overall content in relation to man-made and natural disasters, supplemental materials, and the three main aspects of disaster planning (preparedness, response, and recovery)