Army History, Issue 85, Fall 2012 - US Army Center Of Military History

The Chief’s Corner
Robert J. Dalessandro
Continued from page 3
procedures. We must ensure that all employees understand
their roles and responsibilities during an event and continually
update methods to communicate with them. And, everyone
must fully understand command relationships and lines of
responsibility and how they fit into the organizational picture.
Everyone must play a part during a disaster. Well-trained
organizations that remain vigilant can restore operations
quickly while ensuring the safety of their workforce.
As historians and curators, we have additional responsibilities.
We have a duty to safeguard our collections. Some
months ago, Center of Military History (CMH) museum
conservator Jane Stewart published a short piece for the
CMH Museum Memo. Given her particular expertise, it is
appropriate to reprint an excerpt here in this column. Jane’s
article below speaks powerfully to the benefits of preparation
before a disaster strikes.
What can we do about responding to our collection
emergencies? What happens in “smaller disasters,” emergency
situations, or water incidents? What if something
happened in the building that housed your historical collections?
Who would you call? How quickly could you find
the phone number? What is your plan?
Preserving collections requires care, knowledge, and diligence.
A Collections Disaster Plan is one part of your institution’s
Preservation Plan. In my career as a paper conservator,
I have seen much damage that could have been avoided if
only things were done differently. The missing links for safe
recovery of collections after an emergency are preparation,
information, and education. For response and recovery to
emergencies, part of preparedness is the knowledge that
there are safeguards any institution or individual can have
in place ahead of time. The key to successful response and
recovery of historical collections is preparedness: a plan
and a well-trained staff. Training for disaster response and
recovery is an in-depth process requiring much effort, but
with great payoff during and after the disaster.
As history and museum professionals, we do our best
to physically protect our collections. We are aware of the
environmental concerns like physical security and controlling
our temperature, relative humidity, and light levels,
but for all of the precautions we take, all the care we give,
and the preservation efforts we promote, our collections are
still vulnerable to the unexpected: a leaky roof, a bursting
pipe, or a devastating natural disaster.
A Collections Disaster Plan has long been touted as something
all historical repositories should have in place. Damage,
in even the least severe incident, can be crippling unless
one knows the proper actions to take. Preparation for what
your geographic area has in store for you is critical to your
preparedness on a large scale, but what about that leaky pipe?
Your preparation to react and respond to the situation
and the damaged collections after the critical life-safety
steps have been taken can make the difference between
48 Army History Fall 2012
a slightly warped, but still usable, item and complete loss
due to fire or flood, or water damage that progressed to
all-consuming mold.
A customized action plan that will clearly dictate roles
and responsibilities during an incident in your collection
should be part of your installation’s emergency plan. Critical
to the salvage of the damaged collections is your initial
response and your preparedness to take action even if collection
recovery cannot begin for weeks after an incident.
In creating your institution’s Collections Disaster
Plan, there are many tools to assist you. There are sample
plans and even templates that you can customize for
your organization. On a national level, the American
Institute for Conservation of Art and Historical Artifacts
(AIC) is one such source of support (see the link
below). Additionally, local universities, state museums,
archives, and libraries often have tools to support their
constituents. Emergency response and recovery has been
systematically prescribed within the archival world for
more than twenty-five years. The formula is available
for your institution to customize.
From experience working with these plans, we know that
all comprehensive plans contain:
1. A body of the plan describing potential emergency situations,
the purpose, functionality, and expected results
of the document
2. A clear, concise table of contents
3. Easily accessible appendices that will provide specific
information about contacts, resources, and procedures
to follow
First steps to creating your organization’s Collections
Disaster Plan may include looking at trusted Web sites to
see what other institutions have done and what sample Collections
Disaster Plans contain.
Prepared institutions know that their Collections Disaster
Plan is:
1. Readily accessible. They maintain this customized
plan electronically to keep the information current,
and keep paper copies in-house and off-site in multiple
locations.
2. Up-to-date. Personnel and phone numbers and contact
information both within your institution and the
community change. Verify that you have the correct
phone numbers for the services you need by calling
those numbers to check their accuracy.
3. Easy-to-use. All critical information should be at
your fingertips and clearly laid out. Try using labeled
tabs, color-coded sections, or whatever makes
sense for your organization.
4. Customized for your institution.