Hurricane Season is in Full Swing!

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Hurricane Season is in Full Swing!

The peak period of hurricane season is now here. Are you prepared? One resource can be of benefit to public librarians is the Hurricane Preparedness & Response for Florida Public Libraries web portal, available at:

http://www.hurricanes.ii.fsu.edu/

We encourage you to take a moment to become familiar with this new website that helps librarians work with local communities to better prepare for and recover from a hurricane disaster by providing the following information and tools:

· Service roles and how to implement them;

· URLs to an extensive set of resources;

· Planning guides and basic actions; and

· Evacuee assistance information.

Plus: This site offers you a searchable database of the best available resources to meet the information needs of library professionals and patrons as they face the challenges presented during this hurricane season. The website includes a short tutorial that introduces you to the various parts of the website and how to best use these resources. For more information, please visit: http://www.hurricanes.ii.fsu.edu/

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Hurricane Flyer Now Available!

Now that hurricane season is here, allow us to introduce a few of the new products and services that have been developed for public libraries by the Information Use Management & Policy Institute (Information Institute) at Florida State University. These new services were developed from a project designed to help public libraries to better assist their communities during hurricane disasters.

WEB PORTAL: The Information Institute’s new web portal captures many best practices to help you better prepare for hurricane season. This web portal also includes access to a comprehensive collection of hurricane information resources. Please visit the homepage of the web portal located at:

http://www.ii.fsu.edu/hurricanes

HURRICANE FLYER: A color flyer has been provided to all Florida public libraries for display and is available from the homepage of the web portal. The downloadable flyer is available from the homepage of the web portal or you may click on the image below.

INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO: We have also created a short instructional video about this web portal that demonstrates its most useful features, including a quick how to session on accessing a broad range of hurricane-related information. That video is available at our web portal or from YouTube at:

• From web portal: http://www.ii.fsu.edu/hurricanes/video
• From YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbqTZXem2Lk
  

Professor Charles R. McClure Named as Hurricane Expert

Charles R. McClure, director of the Information Use Management & Policy Institute (Information Institute) and Francis Eppes Professor at the College of Information, Florida State University (FSU) has been named an expert on hurricane preparedness, response and recovery. The announcement was made by Florida State University’s as an effort to formally identify leading national experts in the study of hurricanes and their impact on people and property.

This announcement comes in response to work Dr. McClure and the Information Institute have done on a project supported by a $311,440 grant awarded by the Florida Catastrophic Storm Risk Management Center at Florida State University’s College of Business to assist public libraries and local communities to better plan for and respond to hurricanes. This project, entitled Hurricane Preparedness and Response for Florida Public Libraries, reveals the critical support roles of libraries during disaster response and recovery.

This announcement was made on May 28: Hurricane Experts at Florida State University. For further information on this project, please contact Joe Ryan, Project Coordinator jzryan@earthlink.net or Charles R. McClure cmcclure@ci.fsu.edu at the Information Institute.

Arrival of Hurricane Season!

Florida State aiding public libraries in hurricane preparedness and response

With the arrival of hurricane season on June 1, Florida's public libraries have a vital role to play in helping their communities prepare for and recover from hurricanes and other severe storms. The Florida State University's Information Use Management & Policy Institute at the College of Information has unveiled a new Web site that will help libraries meet the challenge.

The institute is coordinating a project that brings together emergency response agencies, the State Library and Archives of Florida, the Lyrasis library network and Florida's libraries to share resources and hard-won wisdom. The project's Web site, <www.ii.fsu.edu/hurricanes>, identifies key service roles, best practices, tools and resources that enable better use of the public library in community hurricane preparation and recovery. It includes checklists of steps librarians can take to provide better service to their communities.