Volume 14, Number 1
Feb 1990

Past and Future Disasters

• Relief efforts have been initiated to assist libraries damaged by both the recent earthquake in California and Hurricane Hugo. ALA President Patricia Berger has appointed a Disaster Relief Committee chaired by Lucille Thomas to administer contributions to affected libraries. ALA policy provides for funding of "no less than $5000" in case of a natural disaster that inflicts serious physical damage on a number of libraries. Call Linda Crismond, ALA, 312/944-6780, about contributing.
• OCLC is offering a Disaster Relief Program that provides basic recovery of card catalogs and equipment and consideration of discounted online activities for libraries that need to rebuild their databases. Libraries affected by Hugo should call SOLINET first. The OCLC Pacific Network is acting as a clearinghouse for northern California libraries. (OCLC is a computer network that provides automated services to member libraries across the country: ordering, cataloging, etc. Like SOLINET, it may branch out into preservation services.) [From Wilson Library Bulletin, Jan. 1990.1
• The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) has been training its staff since last November to use its new INS-funded Referral System, and expected to announce its availability through a mass mailing to museums in January. In the meantime, it has been able to send out lists of conservators willing to give experienced help on disasters to museums and other agencies in the Charleston and San Francisco areas. [From the AIC Newsletter]
• In December 1987, the United Nations General Assembly designated the 1990s the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, in order "to reduce through concerted international actions, especially in developing countries, loss of life, property damage and social and economic disruption caused by natural disasters." The resolution calls on governments "to establish national committees, in cooperation with the relevant scientific and technological communities, with a view to surveying available mechanisms and facilities for the reduction of natural hazards, assessing the particular requirements of their respective countries or regions in order to add to, improve or update existing mechanisms and facilities and develop a strategy to attain the desired goals." The International Council of Museums (ICOM) Committee on Conservation, according to the December IIC Bulletin, was working in 1989 to revise the resolution to include the terms "cultural heritage" and "cultural property" in the text. The Standing Committee charged with this task includes eight people, among them Sally Buchanan and Barbara Roberts. Conservators who want to help are asked to forward the names of people at governmental, institutional or local level who have a particular interest in preserving cultural sites, libraries, archives and works of art, to Barbara Roberts, 2413 Fifth Ave. West, Seattle, WA 98119.