Environmental Monitoring

The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) has been providing environmental monitoring services free of charge to libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and town offices for sixteen years.  Normally two dataloggers are installed inside and one outside.  However, depending on the institution’s needs, more than three can be installed.  There are now openings on the waiting list starting in August 2013.  If you have never had this done, have done major renovations or changes to your facility since monitoring was done previously, or have moved into a new facility no later than this past summer, you might want to think about monitoring.  A description of the program is at http://mblc.state.ma.us/advisory/preservation/monitoring.php.

If you are interested in participating, please respond with the following information:

Name

Institution

Address

Phone #

Fax #

Email address

If you have any questions, please contact Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, Preservation Specialist,

Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, gregor.trinkaus-randall@state.ma.us, www.mass.gov/mblc

Join in MayDay ~ Make a Difference for Your Library or Archives

On May 1, you can do something simple that will make a difference for your library or archives. Join in MayDay , a grassroots effort whose goal is to save our libraries and archives!

INDIVIDUALS can do many things on their own:

* Quickly survey collections areas to ensure that nothing is stored directly on the floor, where it would be especially vulnerable to water damage.
* Note the location of fire exits and fire extinguishers.
* Encourage your repository to participate in MayDay.

REPOSITORIES may engage in activities involving all staff:

* Conduct an evacuation drill to acquaint staff members with the evacuation plan and to test its effectiveness.
* Update the contact information in your existing emergency preparedness plan and create a wallet-size emergency contact roster to facilitate communication and rapid response.

Here are some tips on how to get started...

* Visit a website. Check out SAA's MayDay website!

* Get Ideas for MayDay Activities

* Find tools to expand your disaster planning resources

* Create a quick-and-dirty disaster plan from a free template.

* Find disaster planning classes near you and more in the Annotated MayDay Resources .

* See examples of what others have done for MayDay in the past or what they're doing this year

* Read a book.

* For practical information about what to do first in an emergency and how to prevent further damage, view Heritage Preservation's Field Guide to Emergency Response .

* The Council of State Archivists publishes Emergency Preparedness Initiative and Rescuing Family Records: A Disaster Planning Guide to help point you in the right direction.

* Enter a contest.

* Heritage Preservation National Task Force is hosting a MayDay incentive contest featuring four prizes donated by Gaylord Brothers.

* Share.

* What did you do for MayDay? SAA would love to hear from you - even if you just changed a battery! Send us an email: MayDay@archivists.org.
* Send a paragraph or a photo and caption about how you made a difference for your archives on MayDay. We'll feature your information in the next issue of Archival Outlook. Send to Helen Janousek at hjanousek@archivists.org.

~ Gregor Trinkaus-Randall, M.A.L.S., C.A., Preservation Specialist, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners