Archives Week 2009: Briscoe Center Hosts Free Talk on “Salvaging New Orleans”
Hurricanes, floods, armed conflict… and coffee spills: disasters of any scale can wreak havoc on the documentation of our cultural record. Join the University of Texas at Austin Student Chapter of the Society of American Archivists for Archives Week 2009: When Disaster Strikes, held Oct. 26–31. Archives Week 2009 features a dynamic week of discussions, lectures, and workshops on disaster response and recovery in archives.
In “Salvaging New Orleans: Archivists’ Response to Hurricane Katrina,” hear from a panel of experts who experienced first hand the effects of the largest natural disaster in the United States to date on cultural heritage materials. The panel takes place at the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History’s reading room, Sid Richardson Hall 2.101, at 6:30 p.m. on October 28, 2009.
Brenda Gunn, associate director for research and collections at the Briscoe Center and former president of the Society of Southwest Archivists, shares her work organizing archivists after the hurricane hit. Michael Baimbridge, senior records analyst for NARA Southwest Region, addresses the challenges associated with preserving electronic records in the wake of the hurricane. Karen Pavelka, lecturer at the Kilgarlin Center at the University of Texas at Austin, discusses her experiences salvaging paper-based materials that were damaged during the disaster.
