REALM Project

Crisis management planning: Northeast Document Conservation Center 

The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) was founded in 1973 as a nonprofit regional conservation center intended to serve state libraries throughout New England. Over time, the center has expanded to provide a variety of services for institutions throughout the US, including a virtual reference service and a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week disaster assistance service; in-person and virtual training; free, online, preservation leaflets; in-person collection and conservation assessments. To do this work, fifty staff members work at NEDCC, applying their expertise and specialized training in book conservation, paper and photograph conservation, imaging services, audio preservation, and paper-based and digital preservation services. They often collaborate on complex projects, sharing information, space, and equipment when needed. NEDCC’s approach to these services is to listen to what their clients are asking for and then develop resources to meet the needs in the field.

Bexx Caswell-Olson, Director of Book Conservation, manages the book conservation lab and served on a working group for the REALM (REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) project during the COVID-19 pandemic. Bexx shared that the center’s approach to conservation is “to preserve as much of the original object as is possible or reasonable, while still ensuring functionality and long-term preservation of the object.” This philosophy seems to apply to many of the services NEDCC provides, as the staff do their best to meet the client where they are in terms of their understanding of and preparation for crisis and preservation and offer assistance and guidance based on their clients’ needs and values.

Crisis management

Many crises faced by cultural heritage institutions involve facilities-related problems, such as a roof leaking, a power outage, or an evacuation. NEDCC staff have a unique relationship to managing crises like these, in that they develop and provide materials and training for institutions, but they have also been impacted by similar crises themselves, such as a gas explosion a few years ago that affected the center. Because the staff are working with client materials in their labs, they have developed strict policies and procedures that protect the materials with the highest level of care and responsibility.

Bexx shared, “None of the collection materials here are owned by us, and so we have a real duty of care to oversee those things and protect them. And that’s something we’re incredibly conscious of.” The standard is to “keep client materials safe and as safe, if not safer, than they would be at their home institution.”

These policies and procedures apply broadly to the security and safety of the facility and of the materials. NEDCC does not own the building in which they work, and they also share the building with other people. Therefore, the NEDCC staff have procedures around evacuating the building in the event of an emergency. The staff monitor climate controls and prioritize a high level of security, so that unknown people are not allowed to access the center. Moreover, staff do not talk about the projects they are working on with any outside people during the time the materials are at the center, and they don’t post about it on social media until after materials have been returned. This helps to protect the privacy of the client and the material they are sharing with NEDCC.

Regarding their materials, each item is worked on in a secure, locked space with a separate alarm system from the rest of the building, giving a limited number of people access. Furthermore, each item is tracked from its arrival, at which point it is given a location in storage. Each time the item goes to a lab, it is checked out by the assigned person and then checked back in once they’re done. Bexx pointed out that they have been asked by a client in the past to find a particular document within a larger project for a public records request, and the tracking system helped to facilitate that request. As she said, “We like to know where everything is, so we can make sure that, at the end of the day, we always have client material put away and secured. Never leave anything out at night.”

NEDCC also considers several factors when helping a client with an assessment or reference question or when developing training. For instance, while many standards around things like environmental control, might be the same regardless of where an institution is located, other contexts such as humidity and temperature can vary widely and therefore have to be included in a client consultation to give an informative assessment. Budgetary and resource constraints are additional factors to consider, as some institutions might be in resource-rich areas such as cities or have large budgets; others, situated in rural areas, might have smaller budgets or less access to resources. NEDCC staff determine what services might be nearby and accessible to a client and draw on that information for their work.

Ann Marie Willer, Director of Preservation Services at NEDCC, oversees the department that does preservation work across the country. Her staff develop online training on topics such as emergency preparedness; the cost for these webinars depends on the duration. They also offer workshops, either at a client’s request or because the department has identified a need. Additionally, the department provides preservation leaflets, video tutorials, emergency preparedness consultations, as well as a resource entitled, dPlan Arts Ready, which is “an online emergency preparedness and response tool for arts and cultural organizations, regardless of size, scope, or discipline.” Ann Marie shared that the emergency hotline service provides a window into the kinds of situations people are dealing with and can inform the training materials her team develops or even a request for training or assessment to prevent the same issue from recurring.

NEDCC recently began working with the California State Library on “Ready—Or Not”: Cultural Heritage Disaster Preparedness Project. This three-year program is designed to provide disaster planning consulting—developed by NEDCC—to cultural heritage institutions around the state, to help them address their needs in the face of floods, wildfires, earthquakes, avalanches, extreme heat, drought, and more. With this training and assessment work, the project can enable institutions to be informed and prepared going forward. Participating institutions number more than three hundred, and many have received grants to develop their own disaster plans.

Hillary Ellis, the Lead Emergency Preparedness Consultant with NEDCC, manages the project team and conducts on-site emergency preparedness assessments. Hillary pointed out that these institutions often lack a paper-based disaster plan, one that they can turn to in an emergency in which there is a loss of power and internet access, and similarly there can be a lack of training and preparedness among the staff. Therefore, she believes this program serves as a compelling model for state libraries to support local and regional archives, libraries, and museums in helping to get their disaster planning in place. Hillary pointed out, “When we talk about preparedness, it’s an all-hazards approach.”

Her team approaches their work with the goal of providing disaster planning through preparedness strategies, talking through emergency protocols and their feasibility, reality-based scenarios and relevant decision-making, and more. This can take the form of training, toolkits, and direct assistance. The California State Library has offered funding to organizations for direct assistance to help them buy supplies, train their staff, or sign up for workshops. The “Ready—Or Not” team can offer observations and recommendations on what actions they should take, with the hope that clients apply for and receive the funding and take those actions.

Hillary said that they reach back out to people a few months after a training or consultation to see if they’ve taken any steps, and they also administer a questionnaire to get additional impact information. She pointed out that some clients have reached out immediately following a site visit to say that they have made progress and taken those first steps. She has found that in those first few months many people have already developed a disaster plan.

Ann Marie mentioned that her team will do tabletop exercises with clients during training, using resources such as the Library of Congress emergency scenario cards, to help them see what they want to be able to do, what they are actually able to do, and where there are things in their plan that perhaps aren’t well explained or not comprehensive enough. She says,

"I strongly believe that the process of disaster planning is very important…the process of sitting down and thinking things through and bringing that information together in and of itself gets people on the same page, gets them pointed in the right direction, and can help you in that next disaster, even if you’re panicked and can’t find your written disaster plan."

Her philosophy behind training is to have staff attend the training, gain awareness, and build the confidence they need to handle a situation should it arise.

Hillary characterized disaster preparedness training as offering people hope:

“It’s the difference between folks thinking they have to throw their whole collection in the trash and give up on it, and calling a conservator and knowing there’s potential to save it.”

Bexx pointed out that the future for NEDCC involves continuing to focus on what people need—offering more disaster response training around the country that helps people and their institutions prepare for the developing climate change-related crises. NEDCC is also trying to include climate concerns in their general training, to spread the information that this is an ongoing priority when it comes to conservation and preservation of various materials. “We’re making sure we’re giving people advice to help them plan accordingly for the future.”

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Be proactive and plan for training, workshops, assessments (in-person or virtual), and more, to empower your staff to be ready for what may come.
2. A small budget doesn’t have to be a barrier; take advantage of these free materials on NEDCC’s website and their reference service to help you take those crucial first steps.
3. Be realistic about what you and your staff can do in an emergency; apply that realistic assessment to your disaster plan so that it is feasible and executable during a crisis.

Other examples

Read other examples of how libraries, archives, and museums are approaching crisis management and planning for disasters.

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