This panel discussion features practitioners with deep experience in preparing both their libraries, and their communities, for the impacts of climate change. Our panel speaks to traditional disaster preparedness, business continuity planning, community resilience work, and preparing communities for severe weather events and the increased likelihood of food supply interruptions. While libraries are not first responders, they should be connected with the emergency management community and be positioned as part of both the short-term and long-term “first restorer” network as disruptions amplified by climate change happen with more frequency.

Presented by:

• Rebekkah Smith Aldrich (MLS, LEED AP), Executive Director, Mid-Hudson Library System (NY), Co-founder/Current President, Sustainable Libraries Initiative (SLI), and author
• Keith Adams, Executive Director, New Jersey Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
• Michele Stricker, Deputy State Librarian,  Library Development Bureau, New Jersey State Library
• Sarah Lipuma, Resilience Coordinator, FEMA Region 2 Mitigation Division

Access recording

• View Webinar Recording (You will be prompted to login to our free Course Catalog.)

Webinar attachments

• View slides (pdf)
  
• View chat (xls)
• View captions (txt)
  
• Series Learner Guide (doc) Use alone or with others to extend your learning.

Related resources and links

• WebJunction webinar with Michele Stricker (2018), From Facilities to Trauma: Disaster Planning and Community Resiliency at Your Library
• New Jersey State Library’s Disaster Preparedness & Community Resiliency Toolkit
• US Climate Resilience Toolkit and Case Studies
• National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster
• dPlan: https://www.dplan.org/
  
• FEMA Regions
• Pocket Response Template and examples
• Social Vulnerability Index
• Book recommended by Sarah Lipuma, Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
• FEMA Makes Changes to Individual Assistance Policies to Advance Equity for Disaster Survivors
• Hazard Mitigation Partners Workshop. The focus of the workshop is All Together for Climate Resilient Communities. The conversations throughout the workshop will focus on building mitigation champions, driving community resilience, providing technical assistance for grant programs, and supporting community resilience and hazard mitigation.
  
• Climate resilience hubs for libraries

• Sustainable Libraries: Resources and Webinars for Climate Action
• Read Sustainability 101, the first article
  
• Read Getting Started with Climate Action Planning, the second article
  
• Read Disaster Preparedness and Community Resilience, the third aricle
• Read Climate Justice, the fourth aricle
• Read Programs that Walk the Talk, the fifth article
  
• Reading Lists on WorldCat.org compiled by Sustainable Libraries Inititative
• Essential Reads
• Environmental Justice
• Eco-Literacy for Kids
• Books for Youth Climate Activists
• Climate Fiction Starter Pack
• OCLC's Distinguished Seminar Series with Rebekkah Smith Aldrich: Sustainability—A Call to Action for the Library Community
• Road Map to Sustainability
• eNewsletter of the Sustainable Libraries Initiative
• Sustainable Library Certification Program
• Final Presentations from the Sustainable Library Certification Program
• Resources from the Sustainability Round Table of the American Library Association
• Sustainability and Libraries: ALA and Sustainability

Other webinars in the series

Sustainability 101
Recording now available

Climate Action Planning (Part 1): An Introduction
Recording now available

Climate Action Planning (Part 2): Disaster Preparedness and Community Resilience
Recording now available

Climate Justice
Recording now available

Living Our Values Out Loud: Programs that Walk the Talk
Recording now available