With the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season below manner, librarians and knowledge professionals are being outfitted to place libraries as essential havens for people and communities throughout pure disasters.
This was facilitated throughout a Catastrophe Administration Workshop – an initiative of the Jamaica Libraries and Info Community (JAMLIN), in collaboration with the Nationwide Library of Jamaica (NLJ) and the Jamaica Library Service (JLS) – held on Monday (June 30) on the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Library on Tom Redcam Drive.
JAMLIN Growth Supervisor, Jasheka Robinson, in her remarks, highlighted the function of libraries when disasters strike.
“These areas usually are not solely centres of data but in addition anchors of stability, connection and resilience in instances of disaster. Whether or not it’s serving to somebody apply for reduction, cost their cellphone, or studying a guide to a scared little one, what we offer might be life-saving,” Ms. Robinson acknowledged.
“However for libraries to adequately fulfil these roles, we should plan intentionally…, prepare to construct partnerships, assess dangers and strengthen protocols. Catastrophe administration should be part of how we predict… serve and… lead,” she added.
JLS Senior Director, Kishma Simpson, echoed comparable sentiments, emphasising the timeliness of the workshop in equipping library professionals to function front-line responders in instances of disaster.
“For the reason that begin of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, we’d have already had two hurricanes which have fashioned and truly made landfall in Central America. So it’s, subsequently, well timed that on this workshop, we’re reminded of the essential function libraries and knowledge establishments play, not just for studying and leisure but in addition in instances of disaster. Within the face of storms, displacement, and uncertainty, our libraries usually change into locations of hope and restoration,” Ms. Simpson stated.
The workshop was led by former California police officer, Dr. Roberto Rivera, who has many years of expertise supporting catastrophe response via his voluntary work with the American Pink Cross.
He described the workshop as a “place to begin” for growing protocols that may information how libraries put together for disasters, guaranteeing they continue to be locations of security and safety for residents.
Dr. Rivera pointed to the general public library in Malvern, St. Elizabeth, which served as an important lifeline for the neighborhood within the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl’s devastation throughout the southern parish in July 2024.
Powered by photo voltaic vitality, the library offered charging ports for digital gadgets, an important hyperlink for speaking with family members, and entry to well timed data, thereby serving as a beacon of resilience whereas a lot of St. Elizabeth grappled with energy outages, water shortage, and a collapse in telecommunications.
“Tales like Malvern are crucial to share. The primary factor is that you really want the libraries to repeatedly serve their citizenship, and right here in Jamaica, we noticed that in Malvern. In instances of stress, which disasters deliver to households and to communities, it is a brilliant story that households had been capable of finding out about what was occurring of their neighborhood, [and] all through Jamaica, in addition to get an e mail out and cost their telephones to name members of their households,” Dr. Rivera acknowledged.
The workshop featured a presentation by Dr. Rivera on the theme ‘Libraries and Info Items: Protected Harbours for Youngsters, Households, and Communities’, adopted by interactive group discussions based mostly on real-world situations, from which operational protocols could possibly be developed.
It was streamed to the 109 libraries islandwide, permitting librarians, data leaders, and shelter wardens throughout the nation to learn from the coaching.
Commenting on the purpose of the workshop, Dr. Rivera described it as, “a chance for Jamaicans to brainstorm how they need [disaster response] to search for Jamaica”.
“So, that is me simply sharing a previous occasion that’s just like what we noticed within the Caribbean with Hurricane Irma in Puerto Rico, and different occasions, in that you’ve fellow Jamaicans which can be librarians, which can be members of all of the parishes right here, coming collectively and brainstorming what the library can do for them in instances of catastrophe,” he stated.
The 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season started on June 1 and runs till November 30.
