# Presentation: 087966

## IT Backup Planning

- Lessons from a real-world disaster

- Michael Watson M.D., M.L.S.
- Associate Director
- LSU Health Sciences Center / Shreveport, LA
- mwatso@lsuhsc.edu

## Lesson 1

- A disaster doesn’t have to be _local_ to have an impact on your library.

- Remotely hosted ILS systems can be taken offline by remote events

- Intranet-based systems are not necessarily local

- It’s not just the _library_ systems you need to worry about!

- Recommendation:

- Wherever possible, know where your critical systems are hosted. Even if you can’t influence backup policies & procedures, you’ll know where you need to devise workarounds.

## Lesson 2

- Disasters come in all sizes. Plan accordingly.

- Many disaster plans implicitly consider “mid range” disasters that affect only the library, the hospital, or the campus.

- A community-wide disaster can prevent prompt access to your collections, servers, and backup tapes.

- Small disasters are still disasters. Are there critical documents on your PC’s hard drive? When was the last time you backed them up?

- Recommendation:

- For each disaster scenario in your plan, consider the “small, medium and large” cases.

## Lesson 3

- Some mission-critical systems are outside your control.

- How does your institution handle accounts payable? Accounts receivable? Payroll? What is the potential impact of loss of these systems?

- What does your *institutional* disaster plan say about key administrative systems? Has the library’s plan considered this broader context?

- Recommendation:

- Keep your own backups of key information from institutional systems, if only in a spreadsheet.

## Lesson 4

- In large disasters, library systems won’t be the highest priorities. Backup planning should include operational procedures, not just data.

- Post-Katrina, initial IT priorities included rebuilding  LSUHSC-NO IP space, located evacuated personnel, restoring key administrative systems (PeopleSoft)

- Restoration of library systems took from 2 weeks to 2 months.

- Recommendation:

- In planning, don’t think only about data; think also about operational procedures.

- List critical resources & services. For each, consider how you would continue to operate if it were to go offline for 30 days.

## Lesson 5

- Disasters are informational “black holes.”

- Lack of timely, authoritative news considerably complicates your response to events.

- Even with 12+ New Orleans Computer Services personnel working out of our computer lab, there was no definitive news on whether servers were damaged or when they might be up again.

- It may be difficult to decide when to stop waiting for your institution’s servers to come back online & request access to vendor-hosted services.

- Recommendations:

- Difficult to make, except to note that in an information vacuum, flexibility is key.

## Lesson 6

- Don’t allow the mere existence of “backup tapes” to lull you into a false sense of security.

- Losing your ILS is likely to have far-ranging affects. How will Circ, ILL, Serials, Cataloging, and Acquisitions operate if the ILS is unavailable for an extended period?

- IT support is often decentralized. The person who actually has to retrieve the backup media will not necessarily be aware of backup schedules, procedures or locations.

- IP issues may complicate remote access even if patron data files are fully backed up.

- Recommendations:

- At minimum, document your data backup procedures, schedules, and storage location of backup media in the disaster plan.
- Consider whether off-site backup is an option.
- Include remote access in your disaster planning.

## Lesson 7

- In the wake of a disaster, your colleagues and your vendors are willing to work with you.

- More than 30 vendors offered discounts, free extensions to subscriptions, temporary remote access accounts, and other assistance. Some vendors even contacted us without waiting for us to call.

- Recommendation:

- Don’t be shy about asking your colleagues and your vendors to ask for help. Chances are, many of them will be more than willing to assist in any number of ways.

- Your colleagues are invaluable resources. One of the few pleasant aspects of a decidedly unpleasant situation was the way that other libraries leaped in to assist. Consortia, Associations and individual libraries in the area provided computer hardware, temporary office space, and waived ILL fees.  Expressions of moral support arrived from every quarter.