Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan and Staff Training to Preserve Special Collections and Film Archives

FAIN: PG-51631-12

Keene State College (Keene, NH 03435-0001)
Rodney Gorme Obien (Project Director: May 2011 to January 2014)

The hiring of a consultant to develop a disaster preparedness and recovery plan and to provide training in emergency response to better care for the college's special collections and archive of historical films relating to New Hampshire filmmaking and the history of the cinema. The college's collections also include the records of the Dublin Art Colony Collection, a late 19th-century art organization established by Abbott Henderson Thayer associated with Rockwell Kent, George de Forest, and Frank W. Benson.

The Wallace E. Mason Library of Keene State College seeks support for a project to (1) create a disaster preparedness and recovery plan for the College’s archives, special collections, and film holdings; (2) provide staff with training in emergency preparedness and response planning; and (3) prepare disaster supply kits. The project fulfills one of the primary recommendations of the 2010 Preservation Needs Assessment conducted by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (CCAHA) for the College. The holdings consist of over 250 linear feet of archival and manuscript material and over 6,000 volumes of print and bound materials, covering predominantly the disciplines of history, literature, poetry, film studies, Holocaust studies, and anthropology. The Film Archives holdings include approximately 1,000 color and black and white motion picture films. Work will be completed over a seven-month period, beginning in January 2012 and ending in July 2012.