To Greg and everyone else, I've put in a plug for this before but will do
so again. The Texas Association of Museums recently published an
IMS-funded manual on preparing a disaster preparedness plan. This little
goody--well, actually, it's a large notebook--has sample forms, resource
lists, a few case histories, and a bibliography. It will not write your
plan for you, but gives you the information to prepare a real, working,
useful document and not just a wish list. At this year's TAM meeting, the
first of two workshops that accompany the manual was present. This year's
was on disaster preparedness and prevention; next year's will be on
response and recovery. I'm biased, but I think this is a very useful
manual because it emphasizes the many different concerns we all have with
human health and safety, building security, the roles and responses of
museum personnel, the unpredictability of natural disasters and the
consequent need for flexibility, etc.
Write the Texas Association of Museums, P. O. Box 13345, Austin, Texas
78711, for more information.
Sally Shelton
Collections Conservation Specialist
San Diego Natural History Museum