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Disasters, including health crises and weather emergencies, are increasingly prevalent. While many people are highly resilient, the traumatic experience of emergencies and disasters can affect individuals and communities, including library staff and library users. Traumatic effects can persist long after the immediate impact of an event and may be magnified by cumulative exposure to traumatic events. Libraries are not immune from emergencies and disasters and also experience many other hazards. With attention to trauma and a focus on resilience, libraries can build strong organizations even during difficult circumstances presented by emergencies and disasters. This chapter shares research-based approaches from the literature along with promising practices shared by contributing libraries.

Over halfway through the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG16’s promise of access to justice for all remains a distant pipe-dream. Progress has been limited as the COVID-19 pandemic, new armed conflicts, and rising authoritarianism have in many jurisdictions exacerbated justice problems and hobbled institutional responses. Reversing these negative trends and closing the justice gap will require new ways of conceptualizing and delivering justice services, taking a people-centered, problem-solving approach that draws on data about people’s justice needs and marshals multi-disciplinary expertise, cross-sectoral collaboration, and innovative policy tools to solve them. Drawing on the analysis of an unprecedented global legal needs survey covering over 100 countries, this chapter describes this challenge and highlights the critical role that institutions of higher education can play in stimulating and supporting the much-needed transformation of our justice systems. It profiles exemplary initiatives at colleges and universities bringing their capabilities to bear on the justice challenge and draws lessons learned for institutions looking to follow suit. In doing so, institutions of higher education can not only help close the justice gap but also build trust in justice institutions and contribute to a rejuvenation of the human rights movement.