MayDay for heirlooms, heritage, and museums preparedness

With spring and break-up just around the corner (please, please, please!) one thing we often forget until too late are family heirlooms, photos, records, manuscripts and so on. Heritage Emergency National Task Force special day is aimed at more formal institutions, but every home or tribal office would benefit from considering emergency preparedness for tangible cultural resources.

If you are in Alaska, contact the state museum in Juneau which has a grant to help local museums with preservation and documentation efforts. Bruce Kato, Chief Curator (bruce DOTkato AT alaska DOTgov),
Telephone: (907) 465-4866, http://www.museums.state.ak.us

April is also Alaska Archaeology Month. This year’s theme is archaeology associated with travel along the National Historic Iditarod Trail.

Archives, libraries, museums, and historic preservation organizations across America are setting aside May 1 to participate in MayDay, a national effort to protect collections from disasters…. Here are some ideas from the Heritage Emergency National Task Force:

* If you have a disaster plan, dust it off and bring it up to date.

* If you don’t have a plan, make a timeline for developing one.

* Get to know your local firefighters and police. Invite them to tour your institution and give pointers on safety and preparedness. A poster outlining tips for working with emergency responders ( www.heritagepreservation.org/catalog/) is available from the Task Force.

* Identify the three biggest risks to your collection or building (such as leaking water pipe, heavy snow, or power failure) and outline steps to mitigate them.

* Conduct a building evacuation drill and evaluate the results.

* Update your staff contact information and create a wallet-size version of your emergency contact roster. See the Pocket Response PlanTM (PRePTM) at www.statearchivists.org/prepare/framework/prep.htm.

* Eliminate hazards such as storage in hallways, blocked fire exits, or improper storage of paints or solvents.

* Provide staff with easily accessible disaster response information, such as www.heritageemergency.org.

* Join forces with nearby institutions and agree to assist each other in case of a disaster.

* Establish a method of identifying objects that are most important to your mission, irreplaceable, or most fragile, making evacuation simpler when disaster hits.

* Register for a free course to learn how your institution fits into existing emergency response protocols. A list is available at www.heritagepreservation.org/lessons/courses.html…

Heritage Preservation is offering its popular Field Guide to Emergency Response and Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel at special MayDay sale prices from April 15 to May 31.

Site Search Tags: deadline, preparedness, museums, heritage, photos, libraries, holiday, Katrina

This site

Please let me know if links are broken or missing (The Doctor is IN page)

To read (and print) only one individual post, click on its title. This shows the comments, also. The comments contain additional or updated information. Search for "revised" to find updated info, too.

Readers may subscribe by E-mail or by a feed reader (see sidebar). Click to subscribe to the posts by RSS for posts

Click to subscribe by RSS for comments and updates (recommended if you subscribe to posts)

Unfortunately, Internet Explorer users may find the site doesn't look as nice as Firefox or Opera users, but the info is all here.

If people are interested in further developing topics (such as solid waste, environmental health, erosion and climate, cultural ecology and heritage, or alcohol control) just let me know.

Micro-thoughts are available here, Tumbld twits and newsclips

click logo for Grassroots Science projects. Join us

Categories

April 2008
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Mar		May »
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Teachers of the Tundra

Ptarmigan hunting

Ive always considered myself to be more of a stream outdoorsman, but living in Alaska you are given so many opportunities to play in the field as well. I recently, last weekend, took up one such opportunity and borrowed the schools snow machine and joined Mr. Smith (6th grade teacher) on a x-tundra adventure to hunt some ptarmigan. Ptarmigan are kind of like […]

Summer Adventures

Well, the summer is coming to a close, so I guess I owe you a summary of my adventures. After the trip to Denali with Erin, I returned to hot and humid east coast, Taylor's Landing, Maryland and spent much of the summer fishing on the Potomac river with my Dad and uncle. The river has only gotten better over the years, so fishing was pretty good and w […]

Euphoric fishing

This year has been challenging and rewarding in many ways already. I've been trying to get my feet under me in the classroom. Each new batch of 7th graders that get thrown my way try to test their new teacher by driving them crazy. This years group is trying hard, but they aren't getting anywhere. Tough love! There is always so much work to ge […]

Dirk and Erin's Denali Adventure

Dirk and Erins Denali Adventure began on the 25th of May with our arrival in Anchorage. After securing our rental car we were on our way! Erins friends, Miranda and Brody opened their house to us and we spent the night of the 25th running some errands and just chilling out in Anchortown for the night. We met Erins roommate Christina and her friend Richard fo […]

Getting to the "Hinter" of "Hinterlands"

This past weekend, I made arrangements with my friend Kale, to visit him and some other friends at their current residence in Mekoryuk on Nunuvak Island. Then came the unpredictable adventure of making reservations to fly there. It isnt far, just a short 20 min. hop across the Etolin strait. There are only approximately 170 people that live on the island, […]

Grassroots Science