29.1 Procedures

Your library might have bomb threat response procedures buried somewhere in a manual. These should contain standard advice including directions to cooperate with the caller on the line, ask for the location of the bomb, and try to find out when it will explode. Ask why the bomb has been planted. Pay attention to the characteristics of the caller’s voice, which will reveal the gender of the caller, and sometimes a particular accent or dialect. The caller might sound intoxicated. He or she might also sound familiar, and in this case, you suspect that Jimmy is on the line.

Where is the caller now? Can you hear any background noise, such as traffic or construction? Can you hear music or other voices? You might have only a few seconds to ask questions and to note any voice characteristics and background noise. The caller could hang up at any time. Obviously you should not put him on hold, interrupt him, or make threats in return. Unfortunately, some people make these mistakes.

The call ends abruptly. The bomb threat response procedures might tell you to contact your library’s security department immediately. You should call 911 as well, and answer the operator’s questions clearly. Do not touch any suspicious item such as a parcel, briefcase, or knapsack that has been abandoned in a washroom, stack area, or other public space. An emergency team—the police—will be dispatched in a minute or two; in fact, you can already hear sirens in the distance.

29.2 Time to go

And now it’s time to evacuate the library. The procedures might tell you to trigger the fire alarm and leave the building. Or they might advise you to tell—calmly and firmly—all library employees and patrons to leave as soon as possible by the nearest exit, and not to return until you indicate that it is safe to do so. In some jurisdictions, however, the police prefer you to remain in your building until they arrive, so that you can point out any mysterious packages or other suspicious items. But how comfortable will you be while waiting for the police to arrive? What if the bomb were to explode before they arrived on the scene? How happy would library employees be about remaining in the building with a bomb? With all due respect to the local police, many librarians will not hesitate to evacuate their buildings.

But some people might be slow to move toward the exits. Some might not want to leave the library. They—including staff members as well as patrons—might not believe that it is necessary. Or their curiosity could inspire them to waste time asking questions. Is it really necessary to leave? Is this a drill or an actual emergency? Should we turn off our computers?

Moreover, people do not enjoy evacuating quickly, without their coats, into a snowstorm, freezing temperatures, or heavy rain. But would they prefer to stay indoors to feel the blast of a bomb or the effects of something equally dangerous?

Hence most North American workplaces are obliged to hold regular—often annual—evacuation drills, also known as fire drills. Such drills are appropriate responses to a number of different threats, including toxic spills and hazards such as smoke and fumes emanating from neighboring sites. Drills are not as simple and straightforward as you might think. Until you organize a drill for library employees, you might assume that they know automatically where the nearest exits are, and where to go after they arrive outside. Frequently they do not. They might never have read your library’s emergency manual. If they are new to your workplace, they might not be familiar with various exits.

29.3 Intelligent response

The goal of any drill is to get people to respond intelligently to an alarm. There should be no question about what to do when the alarm sounds. People should not dawdle, or try to retrieve lunch bags from the staffroom fridge, or Google “fire alarm” at the reference desk. As for patrons, the library employee in charge of staging and leading the evacuation—most commonly the designated fire warden—might advise them, over the public address system, to leave the premises immediately. Some wardens move briskly through their library’s public areas, telling patrons to leave at once. In most jurisdictions, that is all that a warden is legally required to do for patrons. A warden is not forced to remain with a patron who refuses to evacuate, nor should a warden attempt to move any patron physically. If a patron requests assistance, a warden may offer to help him or her. Sometimes elderly patrons and those who are physically challenged might need help, and a warden can offer them a hand. The best result is that everybody who was in the library has left quickly and arrived at a safe place.

There are impediments to fast evacuation. You might not like to admit that your branch’s fire exit door is difficult to open. Or perhaps a carousel stands in front of it, or a book sale cart. Your fire warden should ensure that the door opens easily. If the lock sticks or the hinges creak, you should ask the custodial staff to perform the necessary maintenance. And while they are in the branch, ask them to replace the light bulb that burned out a year ago in the exit sign.

Another impediment is inappropriate footwear. Ideally, library employees don flats for workplace activities. While an attractive addition to evening garb, high heels can hinder fast movement and should be discouraged. For employees who must evacuate down external fire escape stairs that are slippery, high heels of any style can make the descent even more nerve-wracking.

29.4 Burberry versus life

Of course, people do not like to leave behind personal belongings including purses, coats, and laptops. Your library’s safety orientation program should encourage them to consider their priorities. They may value their wallets, and wince at the thought of having to apply for replacement driver’s licenses and credit cards—but is it worth risking their lives for such things? That Burberry coat was a Christmas gift, and perfect for rainy days, but it can be replaced. You, however, cannot be replaced so easily, and neither can the owner of that splendid new laptop. Life safety is paramount; before it, everything else is negligible. But people need to be reminded of this through effective orientation programs. Having evacuated, library employees should assemble at a safe gathering site, an area some distance from the building but not too far away: perhaps no more than a couple of blocks. Your safe gathering site should not be affected by the smoke and fumes of a fire, the vapor from a toxic spill, or the blast of an explosion. It must be large enough to accommodate your entire staff. If possible, employees should not have to cross a street to reach it. And once there, the fire warden must make sure that all employees have arrived at the site. For staffs comprising more than 15 people, the warden might need a staff list to call the roll and to confirm that everyone is present. A person missing from a smaller staff will be conspicuous by his or her absence. In a real emergency, anyone missing—and any patron who has refused to leave the library—should be reported to the first police or firefighters at the scene.

29.5 Real bombs are rare

Bomb threats require thorough investigation. If you have evacuated your branch, the police will ask you for details regarding the layout of the branch, and whether it contains places where somebody might be more likely to plant a bomb. They will ask you if you have any idea about who might do so. They will begin their inspection, sometimes with the aid of bomb-sniffing dogs. The planting of real bombs in North American public places is rare, but the police take every bomb threat seriously. If the bomb in your branch appears capable of exploding, a specialized bomb squad will remove it to a remote or bombproof location and detonate it safely. Once they have removed the bomb, the police will allow you to return to your workplace. Your library’s senior management will ask for a full report soon after, and will want reassurance that the threat will not be repeated. The police will try to find the culprit, and fortunately in this case you have given them a lead.

You should keep in mind that different threats will lead to variations in your evacuation technique. A fire in your building will force you to make a straightforward evacuation to a specific safe gathering site. But a fire in a neighboring building could demand different evacuation routes and safe gathering sites. If a tanker truck were to collide with another vehicle and spill harmful chemicals onto the street outside your fire exit, obviously you should not take that exit to avoid the spill. Some fires and toxic spills can lead to employees’ walking greater distances to avoid smoke and noxious fumes. Orientation programs should attempt to address these and other possible events.

29.6 Stay put

In seismic zones such as British Columbia and California, the risk of an earthquake will demand counterintuitive measures. During an earthquake it is wise not to exit or enter a building, since falling masonry can kill. Library employees may be tempted to evacuate their buildings when the ground begins to shake, but instead they should “duck and cover” to stay clear of falling objects. Dedicated orientation is needed to accustom employees to the idea that they should not run from a building during an earthquake, and even after such orientation, some employees might still dash from their buildings.

Thus evacuating your library involves more than nipping out the exit and having coffee down the block. You must assess prevailing risks to your site and determine which ones should lead to evacuation. You should appoint fire wardens for your building—at least 1 for each floor, and ideally 2 or 3 to cover each other’s holidays and absences. You should identify a safe gathering site, and consider an alternative site in case the primary one becomes unsafe or inaccessible. An orientation session for all employees should include an oral presentation, and a drill supervised by the fire wardens. You should repeat that drill at least once a year and not worry about inconveniencing patrons. You are acting in their best interest and for their safety.

29.7 Extinguishers

Some orientation programs include training in the use of fire extinguishers and in the evacuation of injured persons. The fire wardens should take this training, which fire departments in some jurisdictions offer free of charge. But start slowly, to make safe evacuation and response to various threats a part of your library’s standard operating procedure. Trying to accomplish too much in too short a time can lead to employees’ indifference to essential points of any safety program in the long term.

As for Jimmy’s bomb, it turns out to be a broken digital clock taped to a bag of firecrackers. Jimmy tells the police officers who knock on his door that a voice has told him to destroy your library. He is taken into custody and found to be a danger to himself and the public. But in his care facility, a mental health worker reads him stories and eventually accompanies him on visits to a library where he feels secure and welcome. He enjoys reading coffee table books about nature and foreign places. He tells the mental health worker that libraries are not such bad places after all.

Nevertheless, library employees should know how to leave their workplaces safely, just in case. Poor Jimmy is not the only person who hears voices.