Preserving the Collection: Disaster Planning, Response & Recovery

These videos by CCI may be short, but the message is impressive: controlling relative humidity and temperature is important, but don't forget about pollutants.  Time-lapse Video of Deterioration: Two Iron Keys, Incorrect Relative Humidity & Pollutants: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2-wLGmP8sE Time-lapse Video of Deterioration: Parchment and Iron Key, Incorrect Relative Humidity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXaGY940Slk

This ICOM webinar presents a panel of museum professionals from all over the world. While the focus is on measures taken during the COVID-19 lockdown, the panelists agree that the experienced served to exacerbate pre-existing problems in their institutions that need to be addressed. There is also an interesting conversation on how to make administrators care about storage areas, and how to safely bring the public into storage areas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thjIR0_6yo8&list=PLY142wUw8BUrThQVcMOUJJwLzcdtE2DJ4&index=3

  A hard freeze is expected Thursday and Friday in south central Texas. Just a few simple precautions, like covering exterior pipes and keeping the thermostat at a steady temperature, will help protect your facility and your home. https://www.readyharris.org/Newsroom/ReadyHarris-Alerts/All-Previous-Alerts/update-freezing-temps-expected-late-thursday-into-this-weekend

If you have any concerns about fire, this video, Good Practices, Trends and Fire Fighting Technology for Cultural Heritage, is worth a watch. This is part of an educational response and ongoing discussion sparked by the devastating fire at the National Museum of Brazil in 2018 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Museum_of_Brazil_fire). Christopher Marrion discusses how fire works, how various fire fighting and prevenion methods work, and practical steps you can take to buy time for your collection. The audio quality is a little choppy in the beginning, but improves after the introductory slides. Good Practices, Trends and Fire Fighting Technology for Cultural Heritage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q84XjwBwwo

The handbook Building an Emergency Plan: A Guide for Museums and Other Cultural Institutions ( http://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/1098/1/emergency_plan.pdf ) is a fantastic resource. If you don't have time to read through all of it, we recommend looking through the case studies in the first chapter. Here, four museums briefly discuss the reason they began emergency planning, lessons learned, and advice for others starting their emergency planning process.

  If you have an item in your collection that is showing signs of degradation, or perhaps you've recently been through a situation that has affected your entire collection, a good first step is to consult with a conservator. Conservators can give advice for the best methods of handling and storing a particular object, or provide assessments and conserve the object if needed. AIC has the most complete directory of conservators: culturalheritage.org/about-conservation/find-a-conservator . If you've never worked with a conservator before, the Indiana Historical Society has some great advice. http://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2012.09-What-is-a-Conservator-1.pdf http://indianahistory.org/wp-content/uploads/201702_Working_with_Conservators.pdf

  On this Giving Tuesday, please consider donating to TX-CERA. This year, all donations will help us build regional emergency supply caches for our Texas Heritage Responders.    To donate through PayPal, visit our website: https://www.txcera.org/donate   Or consider changing your Amazon Smile account to TX-CERA for year-round donations: https://smile.amazon.com/