IFLA Core Activity on Preservation and Conservation (PAC)

ACURIL / IFLA PAC Preconference 2004
May 21- 22, 2004
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

The Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) and The International Federation of Libraries and Institutions (IFLA) Core Activity for Preservation and Conservation (PAC) present a workshop on the theme "Mitigating the Consequences of Natural Disasters for Caribbean Libraries and Archives" to be held on May 21- 22, 2004 at the National Library Building Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The purpose of the preconference is to discuss the risks of hurricanes and other natural disasters, how to deal with them and take adequate preventive measures in order to mitigate their consequences.

This is the second of a series of workshops on disasters that PAC is organising in the Caribbean area, a region regularly threatened and damaged by natural disasters of all kinds. The first was organised last October at the UNAM* in Mexico with the collaboration of the National Library and of ABINIA**. The National Library José Martí in Cuba will host a third workshop in 2005.

These workshops are meant to gather participants speaking the same language and coming from a restricted and neighbouring area. It is expected that attendants weave a network of experts and professionals capable of helping each other in the event of a disaster. Around a hundred participants representing various cultural institutions and actors from the civil society are expected from around the Caribbean.

It is necessary that libraries, archives and similar institutions know more about disaster planning in the region and especially about the existing (or missing!) disaster plans written and implemented by national institutions. As had been voted by IFLA Council in Glasgow all libraries in charge of collections of national interest should have a disaster plan.

What has happened to so many libraries in the course of history and more recently in Sarajevo and Baghdad proves how rapidly and irreversibly our memory can be destroyed and vanish forever. Let us be more prudent and become the keepers of the Memory of Mankind, an heritage that we certainly want to deliver sane and safe to our children and grand-children.

Pre-Conference Programme

*   UNAM: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
** ABINIA: Asociación de estados iberoamericanos para el desarrollo de las bibliotecas nacionales de los países de Iberoamérica