AIC's 44th Annual Meeting

In 2014, the Vermont Historic Records Advisory Board (VHRAB) successfully obtained a grant to provide emergency preparedness training for cultural heritage institutions across the state. Called Vermont Prepares, this series of workshops and consulting was funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the Vermont Humanities Council. VHRAB partnered with the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC) to present a series of 5 regional workshops, with free follow-up consultations for workshop participants. More than 50 institutions took part in workshops and site visits over a three-month period, including historical societies, state offices, public libraries, museums, and college libraries. The proposed session will discuss the benefits and challenges of a large state-level grant such as the Vermont Prepares project. Beyond the educational purpose, this training series provided a space for discussion and collaboration among regional institutions and professionals. This experience demonstrates that established regional groups might formally agree to assist one another in an emergency with both personnel and space, organize centrally-located depots where salvage supplies and equipment could be shared, and undertake further training sessions such as hands-on wet salvage workshops. This presentation will highlight the successes of collaborative planning and resource-sharing, for public as well as private institutions. Representatives from the VHRAB and from NEDCC will co-present, explaining the process of designing and completing a successful grant, lessons learned from the workshop and from participants, and future plans based on this project.