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Disaster Response Practice

Friday, May 27, 2011 The best way to be prepared is to practice. As school children we have practice drills on how to respond to a fire alarm. Constant practice turns into a habit. We all know how to respond to a fire alarm without even thinking. Today we had a disaster response practice drill.Continue reading “Disaster Response Practice”

Your Aunt’s Dinner Party

Thursday, May 26, 2011 What would you do if your aunt called you two days before her dinner party and informed you that due to a fire in her kitchen she wanted you to host her party at your house? OceanTeacher Academy students used this scenario to practice their disaster planning skills. We all haveContinue reading “Your Aunt’s Dinner Party”

Flattening A Book

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Salvaging damaged books can be very time consuming, especially if they don’t dry flat. Today Caitlin Moore demonstrated how to flatten a book. First you lightly mist a page, using a mister that sprays a very fine mist, interleave with a blank piece of paper every few pages, put a boardContinue reading “Flattening A Book”

Preparing for Disasters

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 An important part of preparing for disasters is to practice and experiment before a disaster. An excellent drill is to get books wet in clean tap water and then air dry them. Get a broad range of books wet and see what happens as they dry. A couple of the booksContinue reading “Preparing for Disasters”

OceanTeacher Academy Disaster Response Session 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011 I am, once again, teaching a Disaster Planning and Recovery course at the OceanTeacher Academy in Ostend, Belgium. Today we learned about air drying books which can be very tedious and time consuming. Each book needs to have plain paper inserted between the covers and every few pages to wick upContinue reading “OceanTeacher Academy Disaster Response Session 2011”

Disaster Response Drill

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 Today we put into practice everything that we had learned over the five days. When students came to class they learned that there had been a “disaster.” They had to work in teams to recover the water and mud covered CDs, photographs, and books. They even had to deal with theContinue reading “Disaster Response Drill”

Outing to a Conservation Lab and Archives

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 This afternoon we went to Bruges to visit the conservation school which is a part of SYNTRA West. The students and teacher provided many demonstrations. We learned that wet paper needs a support when handling the paper or it will tear. We also saw several different ways of making boxes andContinue reading “Outing to a Conservation Lab and Archives”

My Aunt’s Dinner

Monday, July 5, 2010 We checked our books after 5 days of air drying to see if they were dry. None were completely dry. Although several looked dry, when we touched the pages with the palms of our hands, the pages felt cool which meant they were still damp. A few books were ready toContinue reading “My Aunt’s Dinner”

Book Drying Continues

Friday, July 2, 2010 After close to two days of air drying many, but not all, books were ready to press. We used a make shift press of books and bricks. Fans were set up to create good air circulation to continue the drying process over the weekend. We began discussions on disaster planning andContinue reading “Book Drying Continues”

OceanTeacher Academy Course on Disaster Planning and Preparedness

Thursday, July 1, 2010 Today was our first session on disaster planning and preparedness at the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Office for the International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange in Ostend, Belgium. This is a five day course. One of our activities was to dry a wet book. Each student pulled a book out of aContinue reading “OceanTeacher Academy Course on Disaster Planning and Preparedness”