Please tell us how you plan to spread the word or participate at some level in MayDay 2013 activities by posting a note below or sending an email to mayday@archivists.org. Thanks for helping to save our archives!
Perris Valley Museum Historical Archives
Archives Director, Christina Alanne Perris, reported that this was the first year her institution was participating in MayDay. Their region of Southern California, now know as "the official tornado alley of Southern California" received two distructive tornadoes in 2012. They planned on implementing a tornado disaster response plan developed for the Perris Valley Museum Historical Archives to evaluate its effectiveness in getting staff and patrons safely into “safe zones” within our facility, and how to secure down the most sensitive parts of their collections from storm-related damage. They will be timing the evacuation sequence to see how long it takes and will follow up with a discussion session to see how and where improvements need to be made to ensure the most can be done to help their facility.
Popular ERS App Now Available for BlackBerry
The popular ERS: Emergency Response and Salvage phone app is now available for BlackBerry users. In April 2012, Heritage Preservation, in partnership with the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, released its Emergency Response and Salvage Wheel as a free app for Apple devices running iOS 5.1 or later. Since its release, ERS has been downloaded from the App Store more than 1,700 times. Now, the app is available for BlackBerry users and can be downloaded through BlackBerry World. The app is also available for Android devices through Google Play. All versions are free.
Celebrating MayDay In the [FSU] Archives
This month Blue Shield Australia, the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross, is running its annual MayDay campaign, promoting disaster planning and awareness amongst libraries, archives, galleries, museums, local history groups, and other collecting institutions.