Be Ready! Emergency Preparedness for Massachusetts Libraries

In partnership with COSTEP MA and the NEDCC, the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners’ Be Ready! Program is designed to strengthen disaster preparedness and response for Massachusetts libraries by providing access to preservation and emergency preparedness assessments, planning tools, trainings and workshops, and emergency response supply kits.

Trainings & Workshop Schedule

September 21, 2026 (Online)

Disaster Planning with DPlan| ArtsReady

This one-hour webinar presents a comprehensive overview of the dPlan|ArtsReady tool and offers tips and tricks for getting started for Massachusetts Libraries. After an introduction to the tool, the webinar offers strategies and specific steps for using dPlan|ArtsReady to create a disaster plan. The webinar wraps up with a discussion about how to approach disaster planning with limited time and resources and a Q&A session. Attendees walk away with concrete next steps for getting started with dPlan|ArtsReady and additional resources for support.

Following attendance at the webinar, attendees will be invited to apply for a free one-year subscription to dPlan|ArtsReady supported by the MBLC's Be Ready! Emergency Preparedness for Massachusetts Libraries program.

TBA/On Going (In Person)

Emergency Preparedness, Response & Salvage Workshop

As part of MBLC's Be Ready! Emergency Preparedness for Massachusetts Libraries program, this in-person workshop will introduce key concepts of disaster recovery including risk assessment, preparedness, response procedures, and recovery actions. Participants will leave having talked through two disaster scenarios with their peers and having practiced wet salvage techniques. In-person training with a preservation expert is a kinetic learning experience that offers a powerful supplement to annually updating and reviewing an institution’s disaster plan. Participants will leave the training with an understanding of how a disaster would physically impact their collections and how they can be “first responders” for collections salvage.