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Green icon of a gauge Assessing your library’s crisis potential

Although the size and severity of crisis situations are subject to hundreds of variables—library size, age of facility, nature of the campus, etc.—the principles of crisis preparedness and response remain relatively constant. They start with an assessment of potentially sensitive issues. Out of the hundreds of crisis possibilities, you can probably identify the few that would be most likely to happen at your library. 

Preparing for all levels of crises is an exercise in due diligence; however, assessing your library’s vulnerabilities will help you prepare for the most likely scenarios first.

Examples

Examples for academic libraries:

  • Space grab
  • Losing a position
  • Budget down while costs go up
  • Decrease in student engagement with the library
  • Lack of agency in the institution’s educational mission
  • Being asked to take over services with no supporting resources
  • Facing pushback for stopping or downgrading a service

Examples of major or sudden crises:

  • Illness outbreak
  • Violence
  • Natural disasters
  • Facility emergency

Examples of emerging or smoldering crises:

  • Major budget cuts
  • Actions of a disgruntled employee
  • Service cancellation

Examples of minor events:

  • Power outage
  • Acts of vandalism
  • Trimmed service hours
Talking through potential crises

One of the most important things libraries can do is assess which threats are the greatest and discuss how to prepare for them. Consider the following:

  • If the crisis occurred, what warning signs might you have seen?
  • If the crisis occurred, who would be the victims?
  • If the crisis occurred, do you have a system in place to deal with it?
  • What similar crises should your library be prepared for?
Learning from other organizations

Researching the experience of others is a key component of the planning process. Reading recent library publications, checking out websites and social media, calling colleagues outside of your organization, and looking to others to see how they have handled past crises might model your response. Consider the following:

  • What are national library leaders saying about the possibility of potential crises?
  • What emergencies or crises have libraries of similar institutions been experiencing?
  • What did they do right? What would they do differently next time?
  • How did the library communicate in the first few hours of the crisis?
  • Did they seem aloof or engaged with their stakeholders?
  • How visible were the directors?

In sum, conducting an annual vulnerability checkup that addresses the most likely scenarios for your library is a critical step in crisis preparedness. These are the situations you will want to consider when developing a crisis communication plan outline.