The May 25, 2006 "Morning Edition" program on
NPR said that a recent
disaster drill in New Orleans was canceled because nobody
could figure
out who was in charge. While libraries and librarians are
not the
people to take over an orderly evacuation, I can't think of
a group more
capable. We have a powerful tool at hand to manage the
movement of
evacuees - our automation systems.
The NPR story said that for future evacuations, people would
not be
housed at the SuperDome, just processed there. They
mentioned barcodes
and played the sound of a volunteer giving personal
information and a
"bleeping" barcode reader. If this is a
FEMA-designed product, I'm not
sure if I'd trust it.
Libraries might be able to participate in identifying and
tracking
evacuees by managing them as we do with our circulating
items in a
multi-branch system. An evacuee would arrive in the
SuperDome
(Technical Services/Central Library), provide personal
information
(patron module is included in the circulation system), be
issued a
barcode as a bracelet or a necklace, and dispatched to a
remote branch
via some form of public transit, mirroring our inter-branch
book
movements. (Joe checks in, is dispatched to Houston
Central, and is
checked back in at Houston Central when his bus, train, or
car arrives.)
Once arrived at Houston Central, the evacuee could be
"borrowed" by a
temporary housing facility ("Houston East Relocation
Center #2").
Evacuees can then be accounted for using our standard
library
circulation modules with some cross-matching on home
addresses to find
family members.
Use of a circulation system should NEVER look like it came
out of a
library - we don't want to lose our hard-earned reputation
for keeping
patrons' personal data private. Perhaps it would be even
better if
local disaster teams were trained to operate the system.
We professionals understand logistics on this magnitude, the
technology
is proven, and it's available immediately. Vendors might
even offer
this as a free offer as an inducement to purchase.
I seem to recall reading that Sirsi/Dynix libraries had some
of their
Gulf Coast systems moved to offsite locations, with the
vendor acting as
an ASP. As long as a center for displaced persons has
power, an
alternate Internet connection (high-speed connections
through Sprint,
Verizon, and Cingular might work shortly after a disaster)
to reach the
ASP's site, and staff who have been trained to gather
information, we
could make a tool familiar to us work to the greater good of
the
community.
John Marquette
I speak for myself, not my employer.
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