Session 21 - Our Nightmare Before Christmas: Surviving Catastrophic Leaks

Colorado State Archives will discuss our experience with surviving our worst nightmare - a massive leak on Christmas Eve affecting 8,000 cubic feet of archival records. Discussion points will include ongoing challenges of an insufficient storage facility that finally failed, navigating bureaucratic red tape, extreme weather conditions, and adapting to evolving circumstances under chaos on the biggest holiday weekend of the year. Also covered will be how to distribute staff according to their strengths and weaknesses, and why maintaining a sense of humor is vitally important.

In short - what to do when your Home Depot bucket ain't worth a damn.

This session will provide real life examples on how to improve efficiencies in work flows during disasters and how to translate academic theory into a real life scenario.

Target Audiences: Federal, State/Tribal, Local, Public Institutions of Higher Learning

Focus Areas: Archives, Records Management

Presenters: Aly Jabrocki, State Archivist, Colorado State Archives, Sam Schiller, Archival Collections Supervisor, Colorado State Archives, Paul Levit, Records Manager, Colorado State Archives, and Jennifer Simmons, Research Room Supervisor, Colorado State Archives