Emergency Preparedness: The MIT Libraries' Response in the Wake of the Boston Marathon Bombings

Abstract

Growing awareness over the past decade of a wide variety of potential emergencies has led to a marked increase in such planning at academic research libraries. Traditional library disaster recovery planning, focused primarily on tangible collections, has broadened to include much more than books and servers. The need for these changes became abundantly clear to the MIT community in the wake of the events of April 2013 which highlighted the human aspect of emergency situations. A campus-wide initiative was launched to develop concrete emergency preparedness plans within each department. This presentation details the work done by the MIT Libraries to ensure the safety of our community and the integrity of our campus.