draft prospectus for mutual aid

[Richard Boyden <richard.boyden@sanbruno.nara.gov>]

This is a draft prompted by discussion at the June BAPNet meeting as
well as requests for "concrete" proposals from one county govt records
person.  It is very much a draft and I ask for your suggestions on what
should be added/deleted, improved, amended, deflated, etc.  Please send
your ideas in soon so we can develop a usuable document.

Mutual Assistance for Localized
Records, Archives, and Libraries Disasters
Richard Boyden, Chair
Bay Area Preservation Network
August 26, 1996


I. Introduction

Floods, fires, and other disasters take a yearly toll on our nation's
heritage as represented in records, books and artifacts. Too often,
institutions are unprepared to cope with such events.  In response to this
challenge, archivists and librarians in several parts of the country have
banded together to form mutual assistance networks for disaster
response.

The need for mutual response was brought home last year in the Bay
Area when two local governments experienced significant records
disasters.  As a result, the Bay Area Preservation Network is working to
establish a mutual assistance pact that will bring together public
agencies and private corporations, as well as libraries and archives.

Our common goals are: 

develop a corps of professionals trained in disaster planning and
records recovery which can assist an allied institution where a localized
disaster has occurred

establish common stockpiles of disaster recovery supplies

assist institutions to develop effective disaster plans for records,
archives, and library materials

create a suppliers/vendors directory to assist member institutions
preparing disaster plans, and

raise the consciousness of member institutions' management and staff
concerning disaster preparedness issues.

II. Institutional and Geographical Scope

We welcome institutions holding materials for resource sharing - books,
archival documents and manuscripts, and important records, regardless
of form or medium.  These can include both public agencies, whether
they are local, state, or federal, and private, whether they are business,
educational, or religious.  Specific institutional types include libraries of all
kinds, college and university archives and records programs,
corporations, courts, national parks, scientific institutions, churches,
seminaries,  historical societies, and government agencies.

We propose to cover a region including the greater Bay Area counties of
Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa
Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, and Sonoma.  After we construct a network
on a Bay Area basis with sufficient institutional membership, we envision
dividing into five zones, each with its own disaster supplies stockpile
and zone response network, taking into consideration major geographic
barriers like San Francisco Bay, the Golden Gate, the Carquinez
Straights, and the Berkeley Hills-Hayward Fault: Zone A - Santa Clara
and Santa Cruz Counties; Zone B - San Francisco and San Mateo
Counties; Zone C - Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano counties; Zone D -
Alameda and Contra Costa counties, west of the hills; and Zone E -
Alameda and Contra Costa counties, east of the hills.

III.  Plans

A.  Common disaster supplies.  

We hope to purchase ocean-going type cargo containers to store large
quantities of items for packing out and drying water damaged books and
archives.  For example, we plan to stockpile 1000 standard
one-cubic-foot boxes at each site, enough to pack out water soaked
materials in a significant disaster.  Lack of such boxes caused serious
problems in the initial phases of the Contra Costa disaster recovery last
year.  Other items include (but are not limited to) quantities of hardhats,
rubber boots, fans, mops, buckets, rolled newsprint, mylar sheeting,
clipboards, pencils and markers, box cutters, rope, clothesline and
clothespins, shopvacs, extension cords, disposable gloves, plastic
garbage cans, sponges, paper towels, polyethylene tape, plastic
washtubs, paper towels, and disposable aprons.  We plan to establish
our first site either on the Peninsula or the East Bay.  Ultimately, we hope
to have one stockpile container in each of five proposed zones. 
(Southern California networks have found that as affiliated institutions
develop their own disaster plans, they have also acquired their own
smaller disaster supplies for their own use, and relied on the common
stockpiles for more serious local events.)

B.  Training.  

BAPNet plans to conduct a series of workshops to assist institutions
develop basic disaster planning and disaster response skills of staff
members.  Two specific events are planned: October 5, 1996, a fire
demonstration and seminar hosted by the San Jose Fire Department and
the San Jose Historical Museum at the San Jose Fire Training Center; and
February 7, 1997, a one-day elementary disaster planning and response
workshop, place and agenda to be announced.  Future workshops
include a one-day session (Spring 1997) on special media (magnetic tape
and photographic images, TBA), and earthquake preparedness and
response.
 
C.  Vendors, Suppliers and Consultants data base.

Institutions developing disaster plans for protecting and recovering
records, books, and archives frequently spend many hours compiling
lists of vendors and suppliers needed in the event of disaster.  By
pooling our resources, we hope to develop a common list which will be
available to affiliates in data base format.  For example, most records
disasters involving significant quantities of water damaged paper require
the services of cold storage plants to blast freeze the materials in the
first 48 hours before mold sets in.  This requires plans to include the
current phone numbers of cold storage and trucking companies, as well
as records recovery and drying firms.  In a widespread regional disaster
like a major earthquake, drying contractors - the folks with vacuum
freeze drying chambers - will be difficult, if not impossible to find.  For
this reason, we must identify every trucking company and freezer
operation in a 100 mile radius.  We should have plans in place to enable
us cooperatively to move many truckloads of wet records to cold
storage - probably much of it to the Central Valley or even farther afield,
within the 48 hour window.

IV.  Funding

We plan to apply to the California State Library for federal Library
Construction and Services Act funding in the coming year.  A similar
network in San Diego received a significant LSCA grant last year to
match institutional funds for training and supplies.  Other funding will
come from the contributions of affiliates, but these contributions will be
minimal.  Other funding, for example, Stafford Act grants administered by
FEMA, are available to local jurisdictions for disaster planning.  We would
like to work with one or more local governments to develop a model
disaster plan on a pilot basis, possibly using this funding source.


V.  Institutional Obligation

Each affiliated institution will sign the Bay Area Preservation Network
Mutual Aid Agreement.  Under its terms, each institution promises to
come to the assistance of affiliated institutions in need, although
provision of this assistance is optional at the sole discretion of the
institution being called upon to provide aid.

Each institution also agrees to contribute financially or in kind to a
common stockpile of supplies, cargo containers to hold the supplies,
training workshops, and other expenses.  There would be a one-time
up-front monetary contribution, with smaller contributions for
maintenance or other purposes occasionally thereafter. Contributions are
determined by a steering committee of the whole, with each institution
having one vote.  

There have been a number of suggestions for a sliding scale for
contributions depending on institutional size and resources.  For
example, we wish to protect the very significant holdings of a number of
small historical societies and museum archives with meager resources,
and would propose that their contributions be small.  In other cases,
some major institutions may contribute such in-kind resources as a
webpage or listserv, or expert staff for periodic training workshops or
consultations, or serve as host site for a stockpile container.  We
propose the following sliding scale for monetary contributions by
institutions:

$500.00.  Major institutions: universities, corporations, city and county
library systems (over 500,000 population), major local governments (over
500,000 population), and major government agency offices (over 1000
employees).

$400.00.  Large institutions: smaller universities and colleges, city and
county library systems (between 100,000 and 500,000 population), large
local governments (between 100,000 and 500,000 population), and large
government agency offices (between 500 and 1000 employees).

$300.00.  Medium sized institutions: community college library districts,
city and county libraries (between 50,000 and 100,000 population),
medium sized local governments (between 50,000 and 100,000
population), and government agency offices with less than 500
employees.

$200.00.  Small institutions.  Law libraries, local libraries and local
governments under 50,000 population, large historical societies and
government agency offices with 100 employees or less.

$100.00.  Small historical societies, museum archives, and research
centers with unique collections.  Smaller special collections units whose
parent institutions do not affiliate.

VI.  Immediate Steps

We are asking institutions to draft letters of support for a LSCA grant
proposal to be submitted this year to the California State Library.  The
letter does not commit institutions to anything concrete, but is merely an
expression of strong interest and support.  Sample language for such
letters is available in hardcopy and electronic format upon request.

So far, the following institutions have written letters of
support: Hastings College of the Law Library, Mills College Library, U.S.
National Archives and Record Administration, San Jose State University
Library, University of California at Santa Cruz Library, and University of
California at San Francisco Library.

We also hope to hold a series of meetings of interested institutions
throughout the region to explore issues and develop plans for
constructing a mutual aid system.

VII.  Conclusion 

The mutual assistance pact proposed by BAPNet is a sound, low-cost,
and prudent step for the information resources community in this region. 
By pooling resources, we can help protect the invaluable cultural, legal,
and financially significant materials in our care.  The plan, copied from
one developed in Southern California by the Inland Empire Library
Disaster Response Network, has proven to be effective in mobilizing
collective resources to address common problems.

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