WORKSHOP
 
Emergency Response & Salvage Techniques

Sunday, May 16, 2004

Instructors - Barbara Moore and MJ Davis

The workshop will focus on emergency response and recovery for institutions responsible for natural history, ethnographic and archaeological collections of artifacts and archives. Utilizing effective response procedures allows an institution to make an immediate, organized, and effective response to an emergency, safeguarding people and minimizing damage to collections and records and interruption of operations and services. Knowledge of salvage techniques allows an institution to recover collections that might otherwise be lost.

The one-day workshop will lead the participants through the processes of response and recovery from an emergency at their institution. In this framework, the terminology that is used will be clarified and defined, and sections on damage assessment and stabilizing the environment will be included; prioritization issues will be discussed; and supplies, resources and services needed will be presented. Issues concerning health and safety and the emotional response to disasters will be covered, as will salvage methods available for different classes of materials, and which methods are appropriate to different situations. Images, demonstrations and exercises will be used to illustrate these topics.

Building on topics presented at Friday's technical session on emergency preparedness, the workshop will help participants understand clearly the need for an institutional disaster response plan, educate them in the necessary components of that plan, and effectively motivate them to develop such a plan. Participants at the workshop will receive a binder with resource materials and handouts related to the topics covered during the workshop

About the Instructors

Barbara Moore and M.J. Davis work as conservation consultants to museums and other collections-holding agencies. They participated in the "Train the Trainers" program sponsored by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation, in cooperation with the Heritage Emergency Task Force on Emergency Response and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and have both since participated in additional emergency response and recovery training. Moore and Davis have both had extensive experience teaching various aspects of collections care, including emergency preparedness and response, and work with museums and government agencies to carry out risk assessment studies and develop emergency response plans for these institutions.

Barbara Moore
(585) 381-6134; BarbaraMoore@aol.com

MJ Davis
(802) 467-8602; newarkvt@aol.com
 

http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/spnhc
http://www.spnhc.org