Disaster Information Specialist Program
The Disaster Information Specialist Program is a collaborative effort to explore and promote the role of information specialists in the provision of disaster-related information resources to the workforce and communities.
- Monthly Meetings/Conference Calls
- A meeting for those interested in the Disaster Information Specialist Program is held on the second Thursday of each month at 1:30 ET. Topics covered have included:
- Information needs of personnel aboard the USNS Comfort, responding to the Haiti earthquake
- Occupational and training information needs during the 2010 Gulf Oil spill response
- Library-run community preparedness day activities
- Disasters and mental health
The Disaster Information Specialist Program monthly meetings are open to all and can be attended in person or by conference call. To receive announcements about the meetings, including dial-in information, please join our listserv. (Also see below)
- DISASTR-OUTREACH-LIB Listserv
- This email discussion forum is for librarians, information specialists, and other professionals interested in disaster health information outreach to their communities. As a participant in this listserv, you can stay informed about current disaster-related resources, connect to colleagues in the field, engage in information exchange and learn about new ideas, trends, training opportunities, and conferences in the area of disaster health information.
- Disaster Information Outreach Symposium
- The first symposium on disaster information outreach was held at the National Library of Medicine on March 29-30, 2011. The symposium brought together and celebrated all facets of librarians’ and libraries’ efforts to be forward-leaning in offering information services related to disasters and public health emergencies. It was both a culmination of three years of effort in building the new Disaster Information Management Research Center and its projects as well as an opportunity for NLM and symposium participants to consider next steps for the Disaster Information Specialist Program.
The Symposium hosted 200 attendees from 29 US states, Canada and Costa Rica, and another 250+ watched the symposium via live videocast. HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Nicole Lurie, MD, gave the keynote address and was followed by John Koerner, the Chief (in Dr. Lurie’s Office) of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosives Branch. Speakers from federal and state government, the military, academia, hospital libraries, university libraries and volunteer organizations discussed their experiences and presented research results. The agenda, speakers, and other materials are on the symposium home page.
- Disaster Information Specialization Program of the Medical Library Association and NLM
- The Disaster Information Management Research Center has contracted with the Medical Library Association (MLA) to survey interest in continuing education courses on disaster information topics, to develop core competencies and course objectives for a series of courses on disaster topics, and to develop and offer one course in the series in 2011. The survey was completed in March 2011 with nearly 700 responses and the results will be posted soon. MLA hosted a workgroup on March 30, 2011 with 30 invited information professionals active in disaster information work to advise on roles for librarians in disaster preparedness, response and recovery and to begin developing core competencies.
- Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project Partners, 2008-2010
- The National Library of Medicine, Disaster Information Management Research Center initiated a pilot project in 2008 to explore the role of librarians as disaster information specialists within their healthcare institutions. The five original partners of the Disaster Information Specialist Pilot were:
- National Institutes of Health, NIH Library, Bethesda, MD
- National Naval Medical Center, Darnall Biomedical Learning Resource Center(formerly Edward Rhodes Stitt Library), Bethesda, MD
- New York University School of Medicine, Frederick L. Ehrman Medical Library, New York, NY
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Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Bishopric Medical Library, Sarasota, FL
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Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, James A. Zimble Learning Resource Center, Bethesda, MD
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Suburban Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine, Medical Library, Bethesda, MD
