Disaster planning

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OVERVIEW


Disaster planning is about understanding what to do when there is an emergency. Your organisation will have a plan covering major incidents such as fire, flood, bomb threat and theft which will detail who does what in the event of an incident, what is the chain of command, what items should be saved if possible, the location of key equipment and materials and a list of emergency contact details.

Your risk assessment exercise will identify aspects of your planned work which are most likely to be affected by a major incident and you will want to alert the appropriate staff in your organisation to these so that the overall disaster plan can take them into account. Your own risk register will also detail how you intend to manage these situations. For example, if a fire or flood affects the hardware you use, what impact will that have on the work to be done.

For digital content, you will want to consider disaster planning as an aspect of your records management processes to make sure that all vital records are safe and are held in duplicate in different locations. Make sure that your financial plans include an element for this.

Related Digipedia articles


Business planning

Risk assessment

Further information


JISC infonet advice and guidance on records management

Harwell Document Restoration Services disaster plan template