Flood damage in the Czech Republic

    Randy,

    I am writing to inform you of a pressing need expressed by Mrs.
    Draserova, Director of the State Central Archives of the Czech
    Republic. Marie spoke to Mrs. Draserova last week, and I am now
    writing to report on that conversation. The effects of the flood
    on some of the Czech State Archives is not good.

    Briefly, the following repositories and archives were seriously
    effected:

        The District archive of Litomerice,
        Academic archive in Prague,
        Court archive in Troja (Prague),
        The City archive of Usti nad Labem,
        Military archive in Prague,
        The archive of architecture in Prague,
        Prague City Library in Holesovice (Prague), where volumes
        from the 15th century were damaged).

    Worst effected among these were the Military archive at
    Invalidovna (Prague), where more than 4,500 cartons of
    documents, letters and manuscripts are lost (some floating
    away) and the Architectural Archive, at the Academy of Fine Arts
    (also in Invalidovna) were the extent of the damage appears to
    be irreversible.

    Most of the materials which were effected have already been
    rinsed and frozen, as an immediate preserving measure, but it
    will be some time before these materials can be dried and
    restored. Mrs. Draserova has asked us to broadcast a call for
    techniques and/or new technologies that could be used in this
    process. What is currently available here is too slow and energy
    demanding. Please spread the word about this to all your
    contacts in the Library Science and Archival Science fields.
    Replies in English can be sent to our email address. We will
    translate and forward all replies at once.

    Finally, the good news: The Administration of the State Central
    Archives now has the power itself to approve projects such as
    the Indikacni Skizzy Digitization. Mrs. Draserova will meet with
    Marie, Jan and I as soon as the flood related activities subside
    (approximately 1 month). We would be happy to involve the CGSI
    in this process, and I will write more in the weeks to come as
    we begin to prepare for this meeting. I am also submitting a
    detailed briefing of this project to a board member of the
    American Friends of the Czech Republic, to be discussed among
    their members at the upcoming Masaryk statue dedication.

    Best regards,

    Tom

    **** Moderator's comments: My note to Mr. Stilson asking for
    identification of "Tom" has not yet received a response, but
    given the nature of the message, I thought I ought to pass it on
    even if incomplete.


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:14
                Distributed: Wednesday, August 28, 2002
                       Message Id: cdl-16-14-001
                                  ***