FSU Information Institute Library Hurricane Preparedness Web Portal updated

The Florida State University Information Institute’s Hurricane Preparedness & Response for Florida Public Libraries web portal has been updated and now features the 2013 NOAA Hurricane Outlook and recent Hurricane Preparedness workshops offered by Institute staff. 

The web portal was created with the support of the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center at FSU’s College of Business to assist public libraries and local communities better plan for, and respond to, hurricanes.  
This web portal serves as an excellent resource for public libraries and assists them with:

• Providing hurricane-related information resources, services, roles, and best practices related to hurricane preparedness;

• Developing model plans, standards, guidelines and recommendations for hurricane preparedness; and

• Discovering existing strategies that libraries use to assist state and regional government with disaster coordination; and

• Discovering Hurricane Preparedness training and organization opportunities and events sponsored by the Information Institute, the American Red Cross and other agencies. 

Since many public libraries are underutilized community assets in disaster response, the web portal helps improve community hurricane preparedness.

Utilizing the service role of the public library, as part of a team of emergency responders, libraries aid a community’s hurricane response by doing the following:

• Among public librarians: Encouraging public library managers and staff to better understand the roles, best practices, tools and resources available to them as they shape their library’s efforts to aid their community’s hurricane response and to aid the roles of their fellow responders, particularly emergency management, local government leadership, and other agencies;

• Among fellow responders: Educating other responders such as emergency management, local government leadership and agencies, nonprofits and businesses about the roles public libraries may play, as part of a team, to aid in community hurricane preparation and recovery; and

• Among residents and evacuees: Communicating to residents which hurricane preparation and recovery services they can count on at their public library.

Learn more about the project here.

Visit the web portal here.

Laura I. Spears
Doctoral Student, School of Library & Information Studies
Florida State University College of Communication & Information

Graduate Research Associate
FSU Information Institute
(561) 632-1740