Disaster Management In Higher Education Libraries Of Uttar Pradesh And Uttrakhand

Abstract

Disaster is an unanticipated event or unforeseeable situation that prevents the library from conducting its regular business. So, purposefully this study was done to understand disaster management in higher education libraries of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. For this purpose, two central universities namely; Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (HNBGU) and two technical institutes, namely; Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) and Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IITR). Apart from these universities, Indian Institute of Management Kashipur (IIM Kashipur) and Indian Institute of Management Lucknow (IIM Lucknow) were taken under study. The study was conducted using three methods, viz., Observation method, and questionnaire-based method and Interview method. The study detailed and showcased the information like, disaster vulnerability, building condition, disaster preparedness, disaster management plan and backup for emergency and digital data protection measures of all the institutions taken understudy. The study found out that there is no significant relationship between disaster plans of HNBGU, and IIML, libraries to cope up with disaster situation. But there is a significant relationship between disaster plans of IITK, IITR and IIMK libraries to cope up with disaster situation. Also, there is no significant relationship between disaster management policies and disaster management facilities in HNBGU library. But there is a significant relationship between disaster management policies and disaster management facilities in in IITK, IITR, IIML, and IIMK libraries. The study also suggests that developing a comprehensive disaster management plan is crucial for higher education libraries to mitigate risks and ensure thesafety of valuable resources. Also, the present study suggest a framework for disaster management plan, which includes risk assessment and hazard identification, emergency response team, communication and notification, Evacuation and sheltering.