Salvage priorities

At the Canadian Centre for Architecture our disaster plan has been
evolving in stages.  We are now working on establishing priority
lists for collections salvage.  This is not an easy
task--particularly considering our collections comprise some 20,000
prints and drawings, 47,000 photographs, 250,000 archival documents,
and 130,000 volumes in the library.

I would be interested in hearing from other institutions which have
established salvage priorities.  What criteria were used?
(Value--historic, artistic, monetary?  Replaceability?)  Were
individual objects or entire collections singled out as priority
items?  Was condition, sensitivity to water, or the potential
success of salvage operations considered?  How will these priority
objects be identified and located in the event of a disaster? (Floor
plans of vaults? stickers? familiarity of curator with storage
areas?)  Were any of these objects moved to new locations to allow
easier access and rescue?  Any other hints and/or warnings?

If anyone out there has already tackled this issue, I'd appreciate
the opportunity to learn from your experience.

Karen Potje
Canadian Centre for Architecture
Montreal, Canada

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:48
                 Distributed: Monday, November 18, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-48-013
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