Technology Disaster Response and Recovery Planning

Most library disaster plans focus on response and recovery from collection and facilities disasters, such as fire and floods. But because technology is becoming ever more integral to libraries’ role in their communities, any interruption in service and resources is a serious matter. A disaster’s effect on internet and social media sites, electronic resources, digital collections, and staff and public infrastructure of PCs, tablets, laptops and other peripherals requires special consideration. Featuring contributions from librarians who offer hard-won advice gained from personal experience, this compendium leads readers through a step-by-step process of creating a library technology disaster response and recovery plan. This LITA guide Outlines the three phases of technology disaster response, with examples of planning and implementation strategies from several different libraries Describes how to conduct an inventory and risk assessment Provides detailed case studies of recent large-scale technology disasters in libraries and documents how lessons learned have helped to improve technology disaster planning Offers an in-depth look at future trends in cloud computing, mapping out the new field of disaster mitigation, response, and recovery planning Includes useful resources such as checklists, templates, and a sample communications planThough libraries can never know when or how disaster may strike, with the help of this guide they’ll be able to craft a response and recovery plan to weather the storm and get library technology back online as quickly as possible.