Plenary III: Environment

Abstract

The alarming number of recent, deadly natural disasters, including flooding and monsoons in South Asia, hurricanes, earthquakes, and wildfires in North America, and landslides and drought in Africa is a constant reminder of the responsibilities that we have as cultural heritage institutions to protect our facilities and collections from an increasingly volatile environment. These environmental disasters prove dangerous to the collections we house and to those of the most vulnerable that may never make it to the archives. Our plenary speakers will explore the impact of violent convergences of weather on our environment and communities, historical evidence of their potential to erase cultural legacies, and our readiness as a field to respond to such disasters. - - - - Moderator: Diane Dias De Fazio, Public Services Librarian, The Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy at The New York Public Library