Quick Tips for Disasters & Emergencies: Contact List on Campus

Disaster Preparedness: Emergency Contact List on Campus

Melina Avery, Conservator, University of Chicago Library

When a disaster may affect collections or is already causing damage, knowing who to call is one of the first steps in an effective response. Of course, if staff or patrons are in danger, they should call 911 immediately. If it is a smaller disaster with no immediate human threat, or after emergency services have been called, staff who discover the disaster should be ready with a contact list. Institutions, depending on their size and location(s), may have different ways of doing this. Staff should be trained consistently, no matter what the system is.

If the institution has a very small team, every member of the staff may have an emergency contact list including members of the administration, facilities services, and the preservation department (if there is one) or a person designated to be responsible for the physical preservation of the collection. If the institution is larger or wants to simplify things by assigning disaster response to a small team, the staff member who discovers the disaster may call a point person on the team. If this is the plan, staff should have contact information for multiple members of the team so they will get through to somebody quickly. This list should be kept updated when staff leave or join the team, or change their contact information. 

The person coordinating disaster response must have a comprehensive contact list in order to effectively respond. This list will include members of the administration, facilities services, and preservation staff. It may also include security, computer systems staff, janitorial services, public relations, and staff members with specialized skills and knowledge related to disaster recovery. From outside the organization, it will include information for contacts such as disaster response vendors, insurers, financial services, poison control, exterminators, local utility companies, and lawyers. There are disaster planning tools that can help formulate a full contact list, such as dPlan. Staff may learn about a disaster when not in their physical space. For this reason, contact lists should be available while off-site either as a paper copy or stored electronically with offsite access.

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