Medical Library Association | Education : Disaster Information Specialization Program

Ethical and Legal Aspects of Disaster Response

"Ethical and Legal Aspects of Disaster Response" is an advanced course and part of the Disaster Information Specialization Program.

Incorporation of ethical principles and legal standards into all phases of the disaster cycle is fundamental to effective and fair disaster response, but the complex information landscape makes meeting this goal challenging. This class will provide an overview of the ethical principles and legal standards that have been applied to health care, public health, and emergency management in disasters, with recommendations for sources of this information. Major online sources of ethical information and international, federal, and state legal resources will be presented. This class consists of 1 hour of pre-class readings and 2 online class sessions of 1.5 hours each. This project is funded by a contract with the Disaster Information Management Research Center, Specialized Information Services Division, National Library of Medicine.

Register Now (Available now)
Individuals can now register to view the original program on-demand. Register, participate, and earn 4 MLA CE contact hours. (After you register, you will receive an email with the login information and details for earning your certificate for participating.)

Resources for Course

Resources and pre-readings for the course are available on MLA's Moodle site. You will need to login as a guest to view the materials. We suggest you print off the handouts before watching the video. You will need to complete the pre-readings before watching the videos.

Course Instructors

Barbara L. Folb

Barbara Folb is the public health informationist at the Health Sciences Library System (HSLS), University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. She has worked there since 1999, serving as outreach librarian from 1999 to 2003, public health librarian from 2003 to 2009, and public health informationist from 2010 to the present. During 2008 and 2009, she was a National Library of Medicine Informationist Fellow. As part of the fellowship she earned her master's in public health in behavioral and community health sciences from the University of Pittsburgh and completed a research study on the information needs and practices of disaster first responders. Folb has enjoyed the opportunity to implement the informationist model of service, maintaining offices in the library and at the Graduate School of Public Health. She works closely with the school's Health Resources and Services Administration funded Pennsylvania Public Health Training Center (PAPHTC), providing training on information seeking and management topics for public health practitioners in Pennsylvania.

Prior to switching careers to librarianship, Folb earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University in music, and a master's in music performance from Youngstown State University. She taught French horn at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, played with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and worked as a freelance musician. She earned her master's in library science from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. Before joining HSLS, she worked at Carnegie Mellon University at the Hunt Library and at the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Corporate Library.

Patti Reynolds

Patricia Reynolds has been the director of the Bishopric Medical Library, Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH), Sarasota, FL, since 2000. Reynolds received her master's of library science from Rutgers University in 1980. With experience in the educational services section of New York University Medical Center Library and a strong passion for computerized information dissemination, she moved to the west coast of Florida in 1995 and established the Ronald Hanson Medical Library and Community Health Information Center at Venice Hospital, Venice, FL. This was followed by a move to Tampa and the American College of Physician Executives, again working with online resources and physicians.

A request from the president of SMH brought her home. SMH is a leader in online computer technology, and a virtual library was the next project to develop. Reynolds has served on the Library Advisory Board of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Reynolds has participated in the National Library of Medicine Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project Partners, 2008-2010. During this period, the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Emergency Preparedness Committee grew to include physicians and nurses, establish a direct report to the administration, and set long-term and short-term goals, to name a few successes. The development of a Sarasota County Coalition of hospitals has begun as well as a coalition of West Coast Medical Libraries. The development of www.suncoastepic.com is the ongoing project of the library group. Reynolds's publication of "Disaster Information Specialist Pilot Project:NLM/DIMRC" in Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 2010 Oct;29(4):394-404, details the activities that took place during this pilot project.

For more information, contact Debra Cavanaugh, mlapd3@mlahq.org, 312.419.9094 x32.

This project is funded by the National Library of Medicine under contract HHS-N-276-2010-00782-P.