MayDay
2010 Participants
PRIZE WINNER: The Disaster Planning Team at Lycoming College’s Snowden Library in Williamsport, PA, invited the college’s Director of Safety and Security and a Security Officer to come talk to the staff about fire safety. The training, entitled “We didn’t Start the Fire!”, included instructions on the use of different types of fire extinguishers and a question and answer period in which staff expressed concerns about what to do during fire drills. Later this summer the library hopes to follow-up this activity with further fire extinguisher training during a “live burn” exercise.
PRIZE WINNER: The Toy and Miniature Museum of Kansas City, MO, is creating a pocket response plan
PRIZE WINNER: For MayDay, the Duke University Libraries in Durham, NC have written a disaster recovery blog post listing useful resources for planning and recovery. Click here to read!
PRIZE WINNER: To celebrate MayDay, the Balboa Art Conservation Center in San Diego, CA, will be preparing a special edition of their quarterly News from the Western Region Field Service Office that is all about MayDay. This electronic newsletter will be distributed to over 2,600 recipients primarily in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona. On May 5th they also offered an informative workshop that prepared participants to salvage works on paper after a water emergency, with particular focus on the first 24-48 hours.
The North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC adapted an emergency procedures flipchart to their site. A copy of the flipchart with a shake flashlight attached has been placed beneath each of the 50 telephone stations on site so it is readily available to staff and volunteers.
Pennsylvania College of Technology’s Madigan Library in Williamsport, PA, celebrated MayDay by hosting a Preservation Quiz Contest. The quiz, which was open to library employees only, tested knowledge of procedures for proper handling of library materials in both normal and emergency circumstances.
The Tinker Swiss Cottage Museum in Rockford, IL, updated its disaster plan for MayDay by adding a training plan for museum staff and volunteers. The training plan was created through a new partnership with the Rockford Fire Department. Fire inspectors also worked with museum staff to create and implement a volunteer training day to help volunteers be more prepared in the event of fire, accidental injury, and high winds.
MayDay gave The Menil Collection in Houston, TX, a new opportunity to redouble their efforts just before the arrival of the 2010 hurricane season. On May 20th they hosted an emergency preparedness ‘Happening’ that combined a fire drill, a fire extinguisher demonstration, and a coffee break to discuss how staff can all contribute to emergency preparedness. They also plan to prepare spill kits to be distributed throughout the building, and to create a collection-wide prioritization system.
The SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator) Archives & History Office in Menlo Park, CA, observed MayDay with a meeting about disaster preparedness supplies. They reviewed and prioritized a master list assembled from several organizations and then identified where they could find suppliers for the tools needed. They also discussed next steps, supply storage, and assignments for creating an emergency phone list and preparedness plan.
The International Women’s Air and Space Museum in Cleveland, OH, held their annual trustee meeting on MayDay. The trustees were informed of recent updates to their insurance and disaster plans, and each trustee received an emergency call list for to keep in their wallet.
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This year the State Library of Massachusetts in Boston, MA, celebrated MayDay by preparing disaster supply kits and reviewing their recently updated disaster plan. Library staff participated in a discussion about the most common kinds of disasters they respond to and created a number of disaster kits to be distributed throughout the library. Every staff member then left with a copy of the updated plan.
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For this year’s MayDay, The University of Virginia’s Alderman Library in Charlottesville, VA, trained key library staff in recovery of wet materials.
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The Intermuseum Conservation Association in Cleveland, OH, took staff on a building tour with the facilities manager who pointed out fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, water shut off values, and electrical breakers. They have decided to make this walk through an annual May Day event. The Association also sent out an email blast to their mailing list reminding them to commemorate May Day 2010.
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A staff member at the Jefferson County Library District in Madras, OR, created a template for 5 individual bookmarks that detail book preservation and library emergency preparedness information taken from the American Library Association preservation website. The bookmarks were distributed throughout the district for both public library patrons and university students.
The Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, followed up on some connections made at a recent WESTPAS training workshop by discussing the creation a memorandum of understanding to outline sharing disaster resources. All participating institutions made a commitment to continue their neighborhood support plan and keep moving forward with collaborative projects.
The Library of Congress Library Services Preservation Directorate in Washington, DC, continued its ongoing help to foster emergency preparedness by providing a downloadable companion resource to last MayDay's "Level of Emergency" table. The new resource provides expanded narrative examples of each combination of factors related to the nature and scope of the emergency: www.loc.gov/preserv/emergprep/scenariosII.pdf. Collecting institutions can modify these narratives to reflect their own collections and likely situations, and can use them to conduct "table top" exercises to validate, strengthen, or create their emergency preparedness plan.
Staff from the Jekyll Island Museum in Jekyll Island, GA, participated in a risk assessment workshop hosted by the Savannah Heritage Emergency Response on May 4th. The workshop covered useful information about policy writing, risks particular to one's own facility and ideas for connecting with local emergency services. It also included a "field trip" to a neighboring museum to test tools developed during Heritage Preservation’s pilot Risk Evaluation and Planning Program.
In addition to updating their emergency plan, hosting a fire drill, and participating in emergency response training, the Safety & Emergency Preparedness Committee at Duquesne University’s Gumberg Library in Pittsburgh, PA cut 10 large sheets of plastic sheeting and placed them in strategic locations throughout the library. A directional map was created so that staff could easily locate the sheeting in the event of a disaster.
The Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, KY, in partnership with the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives and the Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance, sponsored an all-day workshop titled "Disaster Planning for Cultural Collections." Hosted by the University of Louisville, this workshop covered topics on how to plan for a disaster, how to salvage collections, how to write a disaster plan, and how to communicate with first responders and local governments.
For MayDay 2010 the disaster response team at the North Carolina State Archives will be taking staff on a walk through of their vaults while reviewing security and emergency response procedures. They will discuss the types of records stored in each vault, the records recovery procedures, and the specifics of the HVAC and fire suppression units, including the manual shut offs. They also hope to schedule follow up training sessions to discuss similar issues for each of their four storage facilities in Raleigh.
The Shofuso Japanese House and Garden in Philadelphia, PA will complete a pocket response plan, consolidating all emergency response contacts and basic salvage priorities into a wallet-sized reference sheet for staff and key board members.
The New Hampshire State Library in Concord, NH, used MayDay 2010 as the target date to complete its first ever Disaster Plan. Using the dPlan template, the plan was completed ahead of schedule and hard copies have been distributed to all library supervisors, the State Administrative Services Office, and local emergency responders. In addition, three library employees will be attending a regional Disaster Planning & Recovery workshop in May.
The Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) based in Montpelier, VT, will be participating in MayDay by encouraging individual studio artists to take one step toward covering their A’s: Art, Assets, and Archives. CERF will be using its newly released Studio Protector: The Artist’s Guide to Emergencies as the focus of their MayDay outreach activities.
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For MayDay, the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest in Minneapolis, MN, is creating a special page on their Web site for staff use in case of an emergency. With the new site, staff can log in from anywhere to find essential contacts and information about priority collections. The Web site will be an addition to their paper plan that can be easily accessed and updated.
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The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners in Boston, MA, is using MayDay to update their Disaster Plan. The Board has also been working with COSTEP MA to encourage cultural institutions to connect with their local emergency managers.
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This MayDay, the recently formed Coachella Valley Emergency Preparedness Network in Southern California will establish and maintain central repositories of emergency supplies for collections response and salvage. The repositories will be accessible to all participating members. The network seeks to protect the historic and cultural heritage of the Coachella Valley through emergency preparedness programs and training, and by providing assistance to its members in the event of am emergency.
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The National Museum of Industrial History in Allentown, PA, is planning a MayDay luncheon for staff, volunteers, and first responders at an off-site collection storage facility. Participants will receive an overview of the new, comprehensive disaster plan and a walk-through of the facility.
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The Isle of Wight County Historic Resources Division in Smithfield, VA, used last year’s MayDay program as inspiration to develop a disaster plan that was approved by their county's emergency services director. This May they will review that plan, inventory their stock of emergency supplies, and implement their plans for hurricane preparedness.
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Following a security and fire systems review at their historic headquarters last fall, the Monroe County Historical Association in Stroudsburg, PA, is replacing all of the building’s 39 smoke detectors. They also hope to install strobe lights for visually impaired guests and volunteers, and a centrally located manual pull-station. They are currently accepting donations and hope to have the new system installed by the summer.
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The University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT is holding a MayDay luncheon for the Directors and Emergency Planners of all the libraries and museums on campus. The luncheon will feature a keynote speaker who will speak about preparedness issues.