Is Your School Library Prepared for Disaster?

With support from Dollar General and in collaboration with the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and the NEA Foundation, NEA has produced a library disaster toolkit designed to jump-start schools and librarians to plan for the unthinkable—disaster relief following catastrophic weather or other destructive events.

The toolkit includes a sampling of disaster planning resources organized around five readiness steps:

• Assess preparedness
• Identify district resources
• Make a plan
• Create emergency procedures
• Prepare an emergency kit

Part of the Beyond Words initiative, which includes grants to replace books, media, and library equipment for public school libraries that have incurred substantial damage or hardship from natural disasters or acts of terrorism, the toolkit can be downloaded at the NEA Foundation Web site.

Go to www.neafoundation.org for more information.