Heritage Preservation

Heritage Preservation, in partnership with the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), will undertake a two-year continuing education project that addresses the roles and responsibilities of state, territorial, and tribal libraries, archives, museums, and emergency managers to protect our cultural heritage in the face of major disasters. This project will examine existing statewide preparedness and response initiatives, make recommendations to improve statewide adoption, adaptation, and implementation of collaborative models, and promote the incorporation of cultural heritage into state emergency management plans. Using a panel of experts, meetings of library, archives, museum, and emergency manager leaders from 30 states, along with FEMA’s ten Regional Environmental Officers, the project will develop close working relationships among state agencies, increase organizational agility at the state level to respond to disasters affecting cultural resources, and increase the sustainability of statewide initiatives that preserve cultural heritage.