Public Health Crisis Management Playbook for Archives, Libraries, and Museums

The REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums (REALM) Project has published a Public Health Crisis Management Playbook for Archives, Libraries, and Museums.

REALM is a collaboration between OCLC, an international library services cooperative, the US government agency Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Battelle.

The document outlines processes, resources, and tools to aid cultural heritage institutions when planning for, navigating through, and recovering from a significant public health emergency. 

It covers the following topics:

• Crisis leadership - Provides starting points for crisis management and communications planning
• Facilities and operations - Offers considerations for determining processes for decision-making about collections management, space configuration, building systems, and safety protocols
• Crisis decision-making and risk management - Overviews risk assessment, information gathering, and decision-making during uncertain times
• Resource networks - Shares strategies for identifying partners and maintaining collaborative relationships, including a tool for visualizing an institution’s potential partners during a crisis
• Resources for more information - Provides all resources used to develop the playbook, as well as additional materials that can be used in developing a public health crisis management plan