24-Hour Emergency Response Assistance for Collecting Institutions

Announcement from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) about 24-hour emergency response assistance. Please share with colleagues in south Georgia. (Apologies for cross-posting.)

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2019

Contact: Eryl Wentworth, Executive Director
Phone: 202.661.8060
Email: ewentworth@culturalheritage.org

Collecting Institutions: Prepare for Impact from Hurricane Dorian

WASHINGTON, DC—Hurricane Dorian is currently bringing heavy winds and rain to the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The storm is expected to strengthen in the coming days and will likely bring more extreme conditions to the mainland, with expected impacts in Florida and other parts of the southeast US over the Labor Day weekend.

The Foundation for Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) offers free emergency response assistance to cultural organizations impacted by the event. Please help ensure that staff members of collecting institutions are aware of these resources:

• Information on disaster recovery and salvage for impacted collections can be found online at http://www.culturalheritage.org/resources/emergencies.

• The National Heritage Responders, a team of trained volunteer conservators and collections care professionals, are available to provide advice on the phone via a free 24-hour hotline at 202.661.8068.

• National Heritage Responders are also available to conduct pro bono on-site assessments and provide guidance on salvage. Call the hotline (202.661.8068) to request assistance.
Collecting institutions are encouraged to do all that they can to stabilize collections before the storm hits, while also making sure that response contact lists and resources are ready to use, should the institution be affected.

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The Foundation for Advancement in Conservation’s (FAIC) mission is to save cultural heritage for future generations, protecting it from decay and destruction. We advance research and education, lead treatment and collection care initiatives, and deploy conservation expertise to where it is most urgently needed. Our work empowers conservation professionals, strengthens cultural institutions, and engages stakeholders, including public audiences, as we work together to protect cultural heritage for humanity.

AUC Woodruff Library Awarded Grant to Improve Disaster Preparedness for Ga.’s Natural, Cultural, Historical Organizations

ATLANTA (July 18, 2019) — The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library was awarded a one-year grant totaling $16,190 from the LYRASIS Catalyst Fund to support its project “Using Linked Open Data for Georgia’s Natural, Cultural and Historic Organizations’ Disaster Response.” The Library is one of only five institutions to receive this award in 2019 for the purpose of fostering innovation leading to new services and programs among members and knowledge communities worldwide.

The grant begins this month and will be used to create a publicly editable directory of Georgia’s Natural, Cultural and Historical Organizations (NCHs), allowing for quick retrieval of location and contact information for disaster response.

This centralized website will provide first responders with an easy-to-use interface to search by city or county for cultural heritage organizations in affected areas. The Library will also create datasets and document workflows, in an effort to allow other states to reuse and adapt the project’s processes.

Directory information will be compiled, updated, and uploaded with geolocation information to Wikidata, the linked open database from the Wikimedia Foundation. The information will then be delivered via a website that will display embedded subsets of the directory, allowing emergency responders to quickly search for NCHs in disaster areas. 

Partners on this project include Georgia Historical Records Advisory Council (GHRAC), Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency (GEMA/HS), Georgia HomePLACE (A project of the Georgia Public Library Service), Heritage Emergency Response Alliance (HERA), Georgia Library Learning Online), and GAMG (Georgia Association of Museums and Galleries), with additional partner organizations to join in the future.

The website will launch in June 2020. Click here for more information on the LYRASIS Catalyst Fund.

About the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library

The Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library serves the nation’s largest consortium of historically black colleges and universities, which includes Clark Atlanta University, the Interdenominational Theological Center, Morehouse College and Spelman College. As the intellectual center of this prestigious academic community, the Library’s mission is to provide the highest level of information resources and services in support of student and faculty success and the cultural preservation of the Atlanta University Center. In addition to the aesthetic benefits of this state-of-the-art facility, the Library has evolved into a model repository of information resources and a front-runner in the innovative delivery of digital resources. The AUC Woodruff Library is the winner of the 2016 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in the university category from the Association of Collegiate and Research Libraries (ACRL). Library CEO Loretta Parham was named the ACRL 2017 Academic/Research Librarian of the Year. Additional information about the AUC Woodruff Library is available at www.auctr.edu.

About LYRASIS

LYRASIS (www.lyrasis.org), a technology and services membership 501(c)(3) non-profit supporting enduring access to our shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. With 1,700+ institutions supporting LYRASIS’s 10 Community Supported Programs and another 200 institutions that use its hosting and migration services, members enjoy the economies of scale and the shared benefit coming from the effect of networks.