Choices in Chaos: Designing Research into Librarians’ Information Services Improvised During a Variety of Community‐Wide Disasters in order to Produce Evidence‐Based Training Materials for Librarians

Objective ‐ Disasters can and do happen anywhere, and library clients’ information needs change suddenly during community‐wide disasters. Library research and literature about disasters emphasize issues relevant to the protection of staff and collections and the return to normal services. Most of these reports lack any discussion about the special services librarians can provide during disasters. This project investigated the ways librarians develop new services during disasters and examined the most appropriate methods of gathering and analyzing data regarding such services. Results of this preliminary researchaided preparation of a proposed larger scale project.Methods ‐ This paper reports on the design of a research project to study librarians’ information services during a variety of community‐wide disasters. The choice of a research design was informed by the results of earlier preliminary studies and other research methodexplorations. Results‐ A study was proposed using multiple case study and grounded theory methods to gather data on such activities.Conclusion ‐ The resulting proposed project was funded by the United States Institute for Museum and Library Services National Leadership Program “Investigating Library and Information Services During Community‐Based Disasters: Preparing Information Professionals to Plan for the Worst,” This larger project will research and develop evidence based training materials for library students and practitioners. In this paper the preliminary studies are outlined together with the proposed methodology and timeline for the larger project.