Planning Cloud-Based Disaster Recovery for Digital Assets: The Innovative Librarian's Guide

Libraries have suffered from a wide range of both natural and human-made disasters: tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods, riots, tech viruses, server crashes, ransomware, and more. Planning for the restoration of digital assets is only one part of a disaster recovery plan, but it looms ever larger as the digital world consumes more of our budgets and time. Beginning with a discussion of disasters and planning for the known and unknown, Hastings (director, technology svcs., Northeast Kansas Lib. Syst.) describes the use of cloud-based tools for storage and backup. She effectively lays out the steps of preparing a disaster plan, including what to backup and where, security, risk assessment, and monitoring. She further addresses the full scope and elements of a plan, from prevention through training and updating. Links to disaster plan templates are listed, as are suggestions for effective testing using walk-throughs, simulations, and full-scale testing. Appendixes include checklists for disaster plans and for evaluating cloud vendors.