Planning for the Unexpected: Developing Innovative Disaster Training Exercises for Library Personnel.

The challenge of preparing librarians and administrators to respond to disasters is one that few institutions have conquered. Even those with rigorous training and preparedness exercises face the challenge of managing a crisis in which many individuals will not remember their role or purpose in the response. Moreover, the fact that many disasters impact not only library collections but the people inside means that first responders are often viewed as not addressing the needs of a threatened collection. This paper outlines a training program developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in order to prepare its personnel for the challenges of dealing with a large-scale library disaster.