Preserving the Collection: Disaster Planning, Response & Recovery

 Remember, family treasures including documents, photos, and books may look bad after a flood, but they can be saved! FEMA's Save Your Family Treasures page has links to documents in multiple languages with easy-to-follow explanations of what to do with various items after a flood. https://www.fema.gov/disaster/recover/save-family-treasures

 TX-CERA has a list of resources about salvage - both written and video format - on our website. These are resources we find to be particularly useful and practical.  https://www.txcera.org/resources If you are employed at a cultural heritage institution, please consider filling out this Rapid Damage Response (Incident) Form, which will help us assess what damage has been caused by the recent flooding, and what the most critical needs to be met are: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSepyTUNCxr0Y3YERjhzXd87y46h4kg3Qyl0okj3Jliv0_VOWg/viewform Cultural heritage institutions are welcome to reach out to us for advice by email ( tx.cera@gmail.com ) or our hotline ((669)237-2243). We are working to find ways to distribute information about salvaging personal items to a wider audience.

Do fireworks have you thinking about fire safety? Michael Kilby is the Associate Director for Fire Protection at the Smithsonian Institution, and has over 20 years of experience protecting collections from fire. Below are links to two videos: a webinar hosted by AIC & FAIC's Connecting to Collections Care about fire suppression systems, and an interview by Fire Code Tech for a more in-depth view of the position of Associate Director for Fire Protection. C2C Care Fire Suppression for Museums: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awi7mQHjyRQ Fire Protection for Museums and Collection Storage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8MoBuc9l8w

 These two videos are from the Focus on Conservation 2024: Disaster Risk Management for Cultural Heritage, an international conference that "looked  into preparation, response, training, research, and networks to address and mitigate the effect of disasters on cultural heritage", and organized by mithsonian, ICOM-CC, ICOM-Brazil, ICOM-DRMC, Leibniz-Research Network “Preservation”, Deutsches Museum, Museum für Naturkunde and Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum. Disaster Risk Management for Cultural Heritage: Response (1/2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJGIOJTJgM  Disaster Risk Management for Cultural Heritage: Response (2/2): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ0bxU4u2sQ

  Current predictions show an above-normal 2025 hurricane season: https://www.noaa.gov/news-release/noaa-predicts-above-normal-2025-atlantic-hurricane-season

 These webcasts by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) discuss the development and implementation of an effective disaster plan. Disaster Preparedness and Planning: https://youtu.be/dqaIR9qPyIY?si=n3ZHoP59mp4VtAvn Disaster Response Q&A: https://youtu.be/PrxUOq0P1xs?si=Jx5aerjAnxuW7WKw

Need to create or update your emergency response plan? First developed in 2004 with funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training (NCPTT), dPlan is available as both free and subscription plans, providing both an emergency response plan template and access to a library of resources at the free level. https://www.dplan.org/