One of the topics we discussed in Archives and Manuscripts class yesterday was disaster preparations. We were asked how we would respond to an incident like a fire, if you could have someone in to save materials what would you save? My thoughts were to save the materials that bring people to the organization or have irreplaceable value to the organization. I mean value not the monetary meaning of the word. I’m sure people would go for the expensive materials first, but that feels against the spirit of library services to be a provider of information to the public. The most valuable objects are the ones being used most by the community you serve. I know a little bit about ensuring collections on a much different scale from my time working at the Comic Book Store in Glassboro New Jersey. Our collection is secured, but it’s easier for us to have a full inventory of objects because they’re all posted online for sale. We had a robust network for identifying stolen objects as well, which was something we covered in class. Whenever we heard of a theft we would call all the stores up and down the coast, and other stores would do the same with us. They would give us identifiable objects in the collection to look out for and who to contact. I hope institutions like museums and libraries continue to develop networks for these kinds of issues.
Something else I wanted to talk about was disaster preparations. Not too long after I finished my bachelor’s degree in history, I had an interview with someone from FEMA for an on-call job to respond to disasters to protect historic sites, museums, and libraries. That was probably about 4 years ago, so I looked into this again to remind myself of it. It looks like it’s a program co-sponsored by FEMA and the Smithsonian. Even though this sounds like an exciting program to work with, I’m happy I didn’t end up being picked for the job. I still have a lot to learn on this topic, and yesterday’s class was eye-opening on all the preparation needed for this.