A disaster preparedness plan for LDC library

Abstract

The study was about developing a disaster preparedness plan for Law Development Centre library. The objectives of the study were to find out the different disaster possibilities that can affect the library and the information materials,put in place measures that can safeguard the information materials,staff,students and the library building from damage while using the library,formulate a disaster management plan for the Law Development Centre library. The study adopted a mixed research where the primary data was collected using questionnaires,interviews and observation methods.Purposive sampling and random sampling were used to select the Library staff, students and the Administrators that participated in the study. The findings show that the students use more of the print materials which include;Law reports, Appeal reports,Textbooks,Reviews,journals and past papers.There search also shows that there are E-resources.The library has an OPAC and the different online documents can be accessed through Uganda OnlineLaw library,Uganda Law library, Lexislibrary,Jstor and Cambridge EBooks.All the mentioned online libraries are subscribed to by the institute.The study also revealed that there are various sources of disasters that threaten the materials in the library which were;dust,fire and water, excessive heat and humidity ,biological agents,negligent users,vandalism and mishandling by the users. The study developed a disaster preparedness plan for the Law Development Centre library which included four elements namely disaster prevention,preparation,response and recovery. the recommendations made from the study include preventive measures such as installing fire and water alarms,regular fumigation of the bookshelves,training both the staff and the users on the proper use of materials and also on how to respond xv to a disaster in case it happens and routine maintenance measures such as daily building inspection,