Progress of collaboration in disaster preparedness for cultural properties after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Abstract

This paper describes how communities which are involved in preservation and conservation of cultural heritage in Japan struggled in response to the Great East Japan Earthquake for the first two years. It also discusses the progress of collaboration to rescue the damaged materials. The first part of the presentation features the rescue activities of the Rescue Programme for Cultural Properties organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, in which a wide variety of professional institutions and groups participated.

The NDL, the hosting library of IFLA PAC regional center for Asia took part in the programme, as well as carrying out independent projects to support affected libraries. Based on our experience, we realized that the ways of cooperating for disaster preparedness in the library community were a little different from those in museum or archives communities. These differences will be described in the middle section. Finally, the fruits of the two-year Rescue Programme and some issues still to be solved will be presented.