Preparing for the Worst, Planning for the Best: Protecting our Cultural Heritage from Disaster

Abstract

Throughout history libraries, museums and archives have been struck by disasters, both natural and man-made. Earthquakes and floods, storms and fires have caused huge losses of precious collections. Human conflicts and wars have also played their own roles in violating the heritage of human civilization. This book contains the Proceedings of a special IFLA conference held in Berlin in July 2003 which was devoted to the preparedness of library collections for situations of "man made" disasters (conflict, war) and/or natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes). A panel of international experts discussed these issues and exchanged their views. Papers concentrated on different aspects of the issues. One part focuses on national policy planning with contributions by speakers from countries that have established national planning efforts and strategies for handling disasters, specifically as they relate to cultural organizations, such as libraries, archives and museums. Another part concentrates on the institutional level, with an emphasis on what has shown to work based on practical experiences in libraries and other sectors: human resource and response issues, training requirements, pitfalls and success factors. In addition a worldwide scale of case studies is presented. The book pays tribute to the efforts that have been made to protect or recover our cultural heritage from disaster, and provides valuable advise on planning for emergencies and on the preventive measures needed to safeguard collections.