Canada's archives, museums prepare for the worst

Yorkregion.com
September 5, 2018
The Canadian Press

As Brazil mourns the loss of irreplaceable artifacts after a fire ravaged the collection at its national museum, Canadian archivists say some of this country's heritage treasures could also be at risk.

Cara Krmpotich, director of the University of Toronto's museum studies program, said dangers like earthquakes, flooding, and forest fires have made emergency preparedness a priority for Canada's archival spaces, but funding for infrastructure can be hard to come by.

"Could what happened in Brazil happen here? In some ways, absolutely," said Krmpotich.

"If we think about shifting weather and climate change, absolutely this is something we should be thinking about in Canada."

On Sunday night, flames tore through Brazil's National Museum, and officials have said much of Latin America's largest collection of historic and scientific artifacts might be lost.

In the aftermath, Brazilians have pointed to chronic underfunding of the building, including the lack of sprinklers, as a likely source of what many people are calling a preventable tragedy.

The collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto houses national treasures like the oldest English printed book in Canada from 1481, the letters of General James Wolfe, and written archival records of artists like Margaret Atwood and Leonard Cohen.

Associate chief librarian Loryl MacDonald said the institution is fairly well supported by donors, and while risk of damage always exists when dealing with precious artifacts, the university is better prepared than most to respond to disasters.

"I believe a lot of the issues in Brazil revolved around not getting the financial resources they need, so knock on parchment paper that we wouldn't have the same incidents here," MacDonald said.

A 48-page disaster preparedness plan is in place to minimize damage to the library's valuable collection in case of a fire or water damage from sprinklers, including a trained salvage team to inspect and review the books.

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But fires and other disasters aren't unheard of at Canadian institutions, including the University of Toronto.

In 1890, a fire destroyed almost 33,000 books in the university's collection, including a rare copy of Audobon's Birds of America that would now be worth more than $10 million.

Earlier this summer, a server crash wiped out the digital archive at Memorial University of Newfoundland. While all hard copies of the documents remain, and all public services have been restored as of Sept. 1, the process to restore the public Digital Archive Initiative is ongoing.

In 2014 a fire broke out at the Musee de la civilisation in Quebec City, posing a threat to the collection.

Big institutions like the University of Toronto have reasonably good access to funding, but Krmpotich said smaller museums and municipal heritage sites often struggle to access grants to improve disaster preparedness infrastructure.

"It's hard to convince funders, whether it's government funding bodies or philanthropists or government funding agencies, to fund basic core operations," said Krmpotich.

Smaller museums also struggle with a lack of conservation staff to respond to disasters.

A few years ago, a fire broke out at a First Nations cultural community centre on Vancouver Island, prompting a call to other institutions for help preserving its threatened collection.

Other institutions in the province gave instructions over the phone about how to prevent mould growth and dry out artifacts, but the isolated nature of the museum sparked change from neighbouring institutions that wanted to do more to help.

Heidi Swierenga at the Museum of Anthropology said the close call prompted an ongoing initiative to form a province-wide network of responders for when disasters threaten archives and collections, including localized training and disaster kits.

The network hasn't been put to the test yet, but Swierenga said it's given curators and archivists across the province more confidence in the safety of their collections.

"We've not had any incidents, but what we have is peace of mind," Swierenga said.

"Let's just say MOA had a big flood, I would be able to pick up the phone and call conservators and they'd be able to say, 'Yeah, we'll be there right away.'"

While emergency response plans across the country are still in development, Krmpotich said educators and curators will be watching the response to Brazil's loss unfold.

Museology students from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro are collecting photos from guests to the National Museum to pull together a digital archive of its collection.

Krmpotich said the tragic loss is a too-late reminder of the value artifacts have in storytelling, memory and identity.

"We often ask about, what is the value of culture and the arts in moments of economic crisis," said Krmpotich.

"I think this event has shown us that actually, when they're not there, we really feel it. That's what we know what their value is and how important they are."