Medical Library Association | Education : Disaster Information Specialization Program

Information Roles in Disaster Management

"Information Roles in Disaster Management" presents current research findings on librarians' roles supporting the disaster workforce. The course also discusses the information needs of first responders, emergency managers, and other professionals working in the areas of disaster planning, response, and recovery. Participants will have the opportunity to reflect on course content through tabletop exercises that simulate disaster scenarios and interactive activities. Participants will also gain knowledge of a range of potential information services they could offer members of the disaster workforce. This course is a required class for the Disaster Information Specialization Program. 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 3 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

Homework and Resources are on MLA's Moodle site. (Note: You only need to complete one of the table top exercises for your final homework.) We suggest you print off the handouts before watching the videos. Please follow the instructions for completing homework.

Course Instructor

Robin Featherstone

Robin Featherstone is the liaison librarian for medicine, Life Sciences Library, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada. She began her investigations into disaster information provision as an associate fellow at the National Library of Medicine, where she conducted an oral history project on library roles in disaster response (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18974811). With a desire to further understand disaster information needs, Featherstone completed a qualitative case series of disaster information provision to health care providers during the H1N1 pandemic (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22514506). Featherstone's research findings have been presented at many international conferences, including the Disaster Information Outreach: A Symposium for Information Professionals Meeting Disaster Health Information Needs. Featherstone also developed and teaches the course Disaster Health Information Sources: The Basics, which is one of the introductory level courses in MLA's Disaster Information Specialization Program.

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.