Join Your Colleagues in Observing MayDay
Do One Thing for Emergency Preparedness
Archives, libraries, museums, and historic preservation organizations throughout the world are setting aside May 1 to participate in MayDay, an initiative to protect collections from disasters.
Share stories of your MayDay events with us at taskforce@heritagepreservation.org and we’ll send you a free Working with Emergency Responders poster.
Here is a sample of preparedness events taking place this MayDay:
The Balboa Art Conservation Center in San Diego, CA, has made its “Guides to Emergency Preparedness Resources” available as free downloadable PDF files on its Web site.
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., has posted the resource “Model Charter of Library Mutual Disaster Assistance” on its Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) network Web page.
Staff at the Tacoma Art Museum and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, are working together by sharing their collection emergency plans. On May 1, they learned about local emergency preparedness initiatives from the Pierce County Emergency Preparedness Team, then discussed scheduling a fire evacuation drill and fire extinguisher use training.
The Central New York Library Resources Council in Syracuse, NY, is hosting a group discussion event at the Fayetteville Free Library entitled “Archives 911: Health and Safety in the Archives.”
The North Reading Historical Commission in North Reading, MA, has signed up to create a disaster preparedness plan, starting with their Damon Tavern property, using dPlan.
Blue Shield Australia in Adelaide is having a series of one day workshops starting in May entitled “Disaster Planning for Cultural Collections,” which will be offered in cities around Australia
The National Center for Preservation Technology & Training in Natchitoches, LA, is hosting a half day event entitled “Preparing You for the Next Disaster,” which will cover five separate topics related to disaster preparedness.
The Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI) in Pittsburgh, PA, created a collection management Web page that includes information about disaster preparedness. PALCI also distributed copies of the poster Working with Emergency Responders: Tips for Cultural Institutions to all its member libraries and set up a Flickr photo site for its members to submit pictures of their own MayDay activities.
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The Carnegie Mellon University Engineering & Science Library in Lycoming College’s Snowden Library in Williamsport, PA, partnered with the College’s Safety & Security Department to organize a building tour for area first responders. |
The J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, UT, held a luncheon that included representatives from the University’s museums, libraries, and environmental health and safety department to review the state of readiness of the campus’s cultural institutions. Also present, to meet everyone and encourage a closer relationship, was a representative from the University’s contracted commercial disaster recovery company.
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Suggestions of MayDay preparedness activities, a full press release, and MayDay logos to use in conjunction with your preparedness activities are available from the Heritage Emergency National Task Force.
The Society of American Archivists (SAA) created the MayDay initiative in 2006 and promoted the idea to its members and allied organizations. Last year, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, with SAA’s help, expanded the concept to include all kinds of collecting institutions and historic preservation interests.