Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery
The Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery engages and supports our patrons through equitable and accessible services, materials, and technologies (i.e., computers, scanners, printers, etc.)to meet a variety of needs. Within the Library & Gallery building, certain procedures and protocols should be followed in the event of power outages to ensure safety of persons in the building and then of library assets.
This document is organized into two sections. Section I covers scheduled outages and Section II covers unplanned outages.
Report emergencies to Campus Police (x55555) and outages to Physical Plant (x52550).
I. Scheduled Outages
A. Order of Notifications
Notifications for planned outages are sometimes sent as alerts to the entire campus community.Other times, the Library Director and/or Business Manager are the first to be notified of a scheduled power outage. In those cases, the Library Director and/or Business Manager should inform the rest of LEC (3 Associate Directors) as soon as possible of the day and time of the scheduled outage and the planned duration if known. The Associate Directors will inform their respective teams of the outage.
If the Associate Director of Library Technology is unavailable, another member of LITS should be notified in the following order: IT Librarian (vacant), IT Operations Manager, IT Support Associate, IT Support Contingent.
If the Associate Director of Public Services is unavailable, contact the Head of Circulation, the Head of Reference, and the Head of Special Collections.
B. Decisions and Communications Regarding Closures
The nature of scheduled outages will usually permit enough notice to reach the Library Director for a decision on whether to keep all or part of the building open for the duration of a scheduled outage.If the Director of the Library or alternate decides to close the building during the outage, the Director will send an email to the Kuhn list with the details for the closure. The LibraryWebmaster will post the changes to the website. COSMO will post an update on the Library & Gallery’s social media pages.
C. Responsibilities and Procedures for Shutting Down Technology
Outages scheduled between 8am and 6pm, Mondays-Fridays:
The Associate Director of Library Technology, or designee, will send out a library-wide email notifying all employees of the need to shut down and unplug any computers that are not on surge protectors.
All departments: each department will be responsible for turningoff and turning back on departmental computers, printers, photocopiers, scanners, large screen tvs in their departments.
Reference: In addition to their department technologies in the Reference Office, the Reference department is also responsible for turning off equipment at the Reference desk.
Circulation: In addition to their departmental office equipment, the Circulation department is responsible for turning off the computers at the Circulation desk, the self-checkout machine, and kiosks facing the Circulation desk.
Special Collections: In addition to their departmental office equipment, Special Collections will verify that the backup generator will remain in use during the scheduled outage. They will also be responsible for unplugging scanners within the department and ensuring all storage areas, particularly windowless ones, are vacated by staff and students prior to the outage.
LITS: LITS is responsible for the LITS office equipment; public access printers and print stations in the RLC, 1st floor printing area, 2nd & 7th floors; stand up scanners; quick print computers; BI room; microfilm scanners; 455 Assistive Tech room; as time allows public computers on 1st floor, then 2nd floor, then 7th floor back down to 2nd floor; and digital signs.The Associate Director of Library Technology, or designee, may also organize volunteers to assist LITS with shutting down publicly available computers, printers, digital signs, and other equipment throughout the building.
Outages scheduledfor weekday evenings (6pm-7am) or weekends:
If an outage is scheduled to occur beginning late in the evening or on a weekend (i.e., when the library is normally scheduled to be open but LITS staff are not normally scheduled to be in the office), the Associate Director of Library Technology will coordinate with the Associate Director of Public Services to determine a reasonable distribution of duties for shutting down equipment based on the amount of advanced notice and the availability of scheduled staffing prior to the outage. Depending on the situation, LITS staff may be asked to come in during off-hours to perform an orderly shutdown of publicly available technologies throughout the building. For staff machines, the same protocol will be followed as outlined above for regular business hours, with each department responsible for shutting down their own work computers, peripherals, and printers
II. Unplanned Power Outages
Complete power failure or blackout interrupts services. If the blackout occurs after dark, we evacuate users for the duration of the blackout. Use judgment as to whether to permit users to stay inside, (24-hour study space, the atrium) especially in inclement weather. Our foremost concern in this emergency is for safety of persons and then of library assets.
A. Order of Notifications and Communication Protocol
Sound reactions and decisions require good information.
B. Daylight or Partial Blackout: If there is enough light perform these steps
C. Closing
Procedures for staff to prepare to leave the building
Very seldom will an indefinite temporary evacuation turn into a complete closing. In the past, Physical Plant staff have restored power within an hour or so, enabling resumption of services.
If the Director of the Library or alternate decides to close the building for the day/night:
IMPORTANT: If the security grill cannot be lowered manually, users must be cleared from the Atrium and the exterior entry doors to the Atrium must be locked at the time the building is closed.
Announcements for Evacuation
Exit Control
D. Responsibilities and Procedures for Shutting Down Technology
To help protect the library’s technology assets, LITS will be responsible for auditing the use of surge protectors throughout the building. Beginning in FY2021, LITS will start replacing older surge protectors and adding ones for both staff and public machines that do not yet have them.
For any staff computers that are not yet plugged into surge protectors, staff should plan to unplug their computers should an outage occur while they are at work.
If it is safe to do so, higher end public technologies such as the KIC scanner should also be unplugged during an unplanned outage.
E. Follow-up Measures
Whether the Library reopened following a temporary evacuation or closed for the remainder of the day/night after a power blackout, certain steps must be taken to ensure full recovery:
guideline revised 2/5/99, 1/6/04,
Revised by Carolyn Sheffield following comment period, 5/27/20