“It All Happened So Quickly”

Arts, Electronics, and Changes in the Disaster Preparedness Environment

Tom ClaresonSenior Consultant for Digital & Preservation Services

LYRASISNJCAR Statewide Summit

September 9, 2015

Today’s Topics

• Changes in:– The National Approach to Emergency

Preparedness and Response– Working with the Arts Community– Working in the Digital/Electronic

Environment

A Time of Transition

• Heritage Preservation Offices closed 4/30/15• Heritage Preservation dissolved as Private Non-Profit (PNP)

on 6/30/15 following member vote• Transition of programs to FAIC:

– Connecting to Collections Care Online Community – Alliance for Response– State Heritage Emergency Partnership– Risk Evaluation and Planning Program– MayDay Campaign– Awards Programs– Digital Resources for Save Outdoor Sculpture and

Rescue Public Murals to FAIC CoOL

A Time of Transition

Transition planning continues for:• Heritage Emergency National Task Force• Conservation Assessment Program: IMLS

maintains its commitment to the services provided by the Conservation Assessment Program, and will be announcing future grant award plans to support this type of technical assistance in the coming months.

• Heritage Health Information 2014: Remaining deliverables and work products for the HHI project will be managed by IMLS.

Disasters in the Arts Community

Working with the Arts Community

• Interest from:– Federal Funders– Private Foundation Funders– Collecting Institutions/Museums– Performing Arts Centers/Theaters/Dance

Organizations– Organizations without a facility– Individual Artists– Galleries and Collectors

Arts Organizations in a Disaster

• Example: Theater– May not be a collecting institution with objects– However, will likely have archives/records

management for business and financial activities, or the history of the organization

– What will be the disposition of the costumes, sets, and building/venue after a disaster?

– Most of the work may be in preparedness and loss of business/recovering from lost revenue

– Need Continuity of Operations/Business Continuity assistance and training

Similarities to other Cultural Heritage Organizations

• When talking with colleagues about this issue, found many commonalities with Public Libraries (Ports in a Storm Conference)– Arts organizations acting as a

community resource• Powering/charging sources• Community information centers• A resource for community healing

Assisting other arts constituencies

• What can we do to assist arts organizations without a facility? Can we offer our facilities (libraries/archives/museums) for temporary use?

• How can we assist individual artists affected by disasters? Can they use our computers, electricity? Can we identify or provide workspace?

• “LAMS” becoming “GLAMS” – working with Galleries and Collectors

Some initial work

• We need to work to bring arts organizations into the statewide and national emergency preparedness and recovery discussion

• Much of our basic language (EMA, ICS, EOC) may be new to the arts community

• Many arts organizations may not have disaster plans and policies

• Preparing for other incidents that might constitute an emergency: burglary, executive health issues, fire, financial impropriety

Learning about disaster recovery from the Arts Community

• SouthArts: http://www.southarts.org/• ArtsReady: https://www.artsready.org/• National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and

Emergency Response (NCAPER): http://www.giarts.org/group/arts-funding/emergency-readiness-response-and-recovery

• CERF+ (Craft Emergency Relief Fund/Artists Emergency Resources): http://craftemergency.org/

• CultureAidNYC: http://cultureaidnyc.com/about-us/

Challenge/Discussion 1:

• How can NJCAR and Alliance for Response groups nationally expand to incorporate the arts community in collaborative disaster planning and recovery exercises?

Dealing with Digital Disasters

One Library’s Approach to Superstorm Sandy Recovery

After Sandy…

• We learned that many analog/artifactual collections in some sectors of the cultural and creative communities – particularly arts and art galleries – were devastated by the incursion of waters from Sandy.

• In the library community, through disaster planning and preparedness and collaborative recovery, some organizations were able to keep their digital collections safe/back online soon after waters receded.

Case Study: Medical Library

• Sandy struck the Library on Oct. 29, 2012, flooding the basement and lower level of the facility

• Much of physical collection was already in offsite storage (due to space needs – especially student study space)

• Onsite collection was destroyed, salvaged, refrigerated, or stored in another off-site location

Digital Collections

• Library had begun shutting down servers two days before the storm made landfall

• Systems were managed remotely by IT staff working offsite

• When the storm hit, e-mail and phone systems went down, generators were disabled, and even security card readers malfunctioned

Disaster Planning and Mitigation

• The Library did not have a formal/ comprehensive written disaster plan for their digital collections …

• … but they had collaborated with institutional IT staff to develop “elaborate plans for the handling of outages”

• Even before the storm hit, planning was underway to relocate important library servers to a remote, safe, and secure data center in New Jersey

The Damage Done

• “No humans could get near some of the servers and digital collections for several months”

• 65-70 computers and printers damaged by the storm were moved offsite, but even a year later, there was still no place to return them to

• 18-24 months from the time Sandy hit until the physical library could reopen

• Digital library back in full operation 11 days after Sandy hit

Planning for the Future

• The organization became “a total digital library overnight”

• “Given a sufficiently harsh environmental disaster, a digital library can recover much faster than a physical library can”

• “It’s pretty easy to knock a digital library offline, but with normal attention it’s back online quickly. If you knock a physical library out, it can take months, or years, to recover, if it recovers at all.”

Three Factors for Quick Recovery

• “Have the systems you need as secure and safe as you can make them”

• “Cultivate an intelligent, dedicated, and creative systems staff”

• “Stay positive and be ready to communicate and motivate under dire and stressful circumstances”

Challenge/Discussion 2:

• How can NJCAR and individual cultural heritage institutions expand their disaster plans to include their electronic resources and digital collections?

Resources• Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO):

http://metro.org/• New York State Library and Archives – Barbara and

Maria!• New Jersey State Library: http://www.njstatelib.org/ • LYRASIS and Regional Emergency Response Network

(RERN): https://www.lyrasis.org/LYRASIS%20Digital/Pages/Preservation%20Services/RERN.aspx

• Foundation of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AFR and AIC-CERT): http://www.conservation-us.org/publications-resources/disaster-response-recovery/aic-cert#.VedNFZcg1HM

Questions and Feedback?

Contact Information:Tom Clareson

Senior Consultant forDigital & Preservation

Services800.233.3401 or

614.439.1796tom.clareson@lyrasis.org