Rising Together: Community Resilience and Public Libraries

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina, the Joplin Tornadoes, the Oso Mudslide, and even more recently, Hurricane Maria all demonstrated the devastating experience of disaster. While each of these extreme events varies in scope, size, and degree of disruption, each overwhelmed local authorities necessitating state and federal assistance. Prevention of disasters is ideal, but not practical. Instead, the emphasis is placed on resilience or a community’s ability to bounce back. This dissertation explored the phenomenon of community resilience and how public libraries, as FEMA-designated essential community organizations, enhanced community resilience. These phenomena were studied by answering the following research questions: 1. What actions have public libraries taken during and after extreme events to support their communities? 2. What services have public libraries provided to their communities during and after extreme events? 3. What roles have public libraries played in their communities during and after extreme events? 4. How do public library directors/managers think public libraries enhance community resilience and build adaptive capacities? 5. How do disaster responders think public libraries enhance community resilience and build adaptive capacities? Through a multi-method qualitative approach, this work utilized content analysis and interviews to determine the actions, roles, and services public libraries provided throughout disasters, as well as how public libraries enhanced community resilience. First, I performed a content analysis on the Disaster Information Management Research Center database, which is composed of items identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Library of Medicine. The content analysis focuses on: · The actions public libraries have taken throughout disasters; · The services libraries have demonstrated previously throughout disaster; · The roles public libraries play throughout disasters. For the second phase of the research, I conducted interviews with participants to understand how libraries might enhance community resilience. The participants in this study included a purposefully selected group consisting of six to ten public library directors and six to ten disaster response agents working in declared FEMA disaster zones from 2005-2018. Participants were selected as a purposive sample to identify the broadest diversity of library actions, services, and roles across disaster experiences. This work bridges the gap between research and practice by being the first qualitative study in community resilience, investigating the role of public libraries across multiple disaster types and settings. The results of this project identified the adaptive capacities public libraries exhibit to enhance community resilience.