Emergency Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness Resources

The publications at the left offer useful advice for rescuing family and business records in the event of a disaster.

CoSA's PReP envelopes are credit card-sized Tyvek envelopes that can hold a Pocket Response Plan template -- important contact information of emergency responders and materials suppliers -- that every staff member, employee, and volunteer can access vital information should the need arise. Templates come in several languages and are easily customizable to your institution.

Connecting to Collections & Connecting to Collection Care

These past webinars are concerned with disaster recovery. All of them also have additional resources that may be of help.

More Resources

FEMA Resources

The FEMA fact sheet “After the Flood: Advice for Salvaging Damaged Family Treasures,” which provides guidance to salvaging treasured family heirlooms and links to helpful resources. The fact sheet is attached and is also available for download from the FEMA Document and Resource Library.

The best source of information on federal disaster funding for private nonprofits is FEMA’s Public Assistance Program and Policy Guide.

View More FEMA Resources

National Heritage Responders

The NHR is a highly skilled team of conservators and other collections care professionals with expertise in emergency response for cultural heritage collections. The team responds to the needs of cultural institutions during emergencies and disasters through coordinated efforts with first responders, state agencies, vendors and the public. 

All assistance provided by the National Heritage Responders is free, funded by grants and generous donations to the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation.

The NHR are available and ready to assist those collecting institutions impacted by this historic storm. Please call our hotline at 202-661-8068 or e-mail nhr@conservation-us.org.

Visit NHR

Response & Salvage Resources

American Alliance of Museums

Offers a comprehensive list of organizations offering advice and assistance, online recovery guides, and sources to prep for emergencies.

American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works

This page lists several heritage emergency programs, discusses the Four Aspects of Emergency Planning with resources for each aspect.

ArtsReady

Provides links to guidance and aid for artists and arts organizations. Scroll down to the Recovery heading.

Funding Sources

The Society of American Archivists Foundation has a National Disaster Recovery Fund for Archives that provides grants (albeit small ones of $2,000 or less) to support recovery of archival collections from major disasters. The application process is pretty simple and the grant review committee is prepared to act quickly.

Read More About the Fund

Contact Us

If your organization has online resources that you’d like to share, please send them to us at rjulson@statearchivists.org.