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Puerto Rico's libraries, archives and museums road to recovery: A timeline of events after Hurricane Maria Main Menu Content Table of contents Introduction Introduction to the timeline Acknowledgments Time to say thank you About the Authors A little bit about the contributors Timeline Content for the months of September 2017 through September 2018 Interviews Interviews with libraries, archives and museum professionals about the impact of hurricane Maria at their institutions Contribute Contribute to the timeline

Media coverage & publications

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During the weeks and months that followed, we see an increased coverage from the media and individuals sharing with others the conditions, needs and efforts that were taking place related to libraries, archives and museums. These were not only available in the local media, but also through news channels and papers in the United States.

Contents of this tag:

“Puerto Rico’s museums on the mend”
"En buen estado las colecciones de arte del país"
“Why Thousands of People Around the World Are Mapping Puerto Rico's Buildings and Streets”
Hurricane Irma GOES16 ABI visible 2017/09/06
NOAA GOES-16 Satellite captured Hurricane Maria making landfall on Puerto Rico on the morning of September 20th With 155 mph winds, Hurricane Maria eyewall makes landfall on Yabucoa at 6:15am. Crossing diagonally the Island, existing through Arecibo at 2:00pm. Despite its classification according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale as a Category 4, the lack of accurate data when moving across Puerto Rico caused by the loss of the Doppler Radar and the immensity of its 28 miles eye radius supports that stronger wind gust were felt in higher elevations. Over 38 inches of rain and surges up to 9 feet caused flooding and landslides affecting access to roads and communities for weeks. The electrical grid was destroyed, leaving the entire Island without power and potable water.
Leader of Taino Activity Center
“La Escuela de Artes Plásticas sufrió daños considerables por María”
Coalición por el Patrimonio de Puerto Rico’s meeting at Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico Event - Cultural Institutions representatives gather to built a working group for emergency preparedness. Participants include: Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, Municipio de Ponce, Municipio de Bayamón, Universidad de Puerto Rico en Río Piedras - Administración Central y Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte, Municipio de Caguas, Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín, Fundación Puertorriqueña de las Humanidades, National Endowment for the Humanities, Museo de Arte de la Universidad de Puerto Rico - Recinto de Mayagüez, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Museo Casa Roig y el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. Jennifer Growan del Heritage Emergency National Task Force, Marta Mabel Pérez, Director MAPR.
“Bajo agua el Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico”
Detenido el panorama del arte en museos y galerías de Puerto Rico tras el paso del Huracán María”
"FEMA's effort to preserve Puerto Rico's culture and history"
HENTF Assists Archivists In Puerto Rico
“Incierto el futuro para escuelas destrozadas”
“University of Illinois librarian to help Puerto Rican libraries with disaster recovery”
Jane Stern Dorado Community Library Hurricane Relief Fund
“I’m a librarian in Puerto Rico, and this is my Hurricane Maria survival story"
“Nuevas estrategias de contingencia”
"Huracán María"
“El huracán María trae pérdidas de talleres, obras y económicas a nuestros artistas plásticos”
“Daños millonarios en la Biblioteca de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Humacao”
“Golpe histórico a vitrales centenarios”
“911 por el arte”
‘Hamilton’ ticket raffle aims to raise money for damaged library in Puerto Rico
“El Museo de la Salsa sufre daños colaterales por Huracán María en P.R.”
“El Cuartel de Ballajá sufrió cuantiosos daños”
Informe a la comunidad universitaria y al senado académico sobre la situación del recinto de Río Piedras
“El huracán María y las Bibliotecas Académicas en Puerto Rico”
“Archivo de expedientes de Centro Judicial de Bayamón sufrió daños por María”
HENTF Assists Archivists In Puerto Rico
“Piden donaciones de libros para Biblioteca Municipal de Guayanilla” published by Voces del Sur
Biblioteca Pública de Guayanilla asks for help after flooding
"Colecciones en tiempos de emergencia: ¿Cómo actuar?"
Conservators meeting
“UPR: Exige limpieza de hongos en las bibliotecas"
“Se convierte en depósito provisional para otras instituciones” by Mariela Fullana Acosta published at El Nuevo Día
“Bibliotecas de la UPR se capacitan para enfrentar desastres naturales”
Hurricane Maria over Puerto Rico
“Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane”
“In battered Puerto Rico, an art museum full of treasures Is open for business”
Loida García-Febo and Tess Tobin in Libraries Tour (East)
“Orientan sobre cómo preservar colecciones en el RUM”
“Pide ayuda a Japón para rescatar obra de artista puertorriqueño”
“Peligra la memoria histórica del país”
“El Instituto Smithsonian salvaguardó los museos de Puerto Rico”
“The slow reawakening of the Río Piedras Campus”
Mensaje de Elena González, directora de la Biblioteca Legal del Departamento de Justicia
After the Storm: On the Artist’s Life in Puerto Rico, Post-Maria
Loida García-Febo and Tess Tobin in Libraries Tour (Metro)
“Local educators lead relief efforts in Puerto Rico”
“Sharing our resources with Puerto Rico"
“Helping libraries recover post-Hurricane Maria” Publication - Newsletter for the Friends of the University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign, Friendscript, summarizing how through Miriam Centeno they helped libraries in Puerto Rico with a donation of 3 preservation kit supplies. They were received by the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez, the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras, and the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico.
“Discover America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2018”
Recordando lo que causó el Huracán María a la Biblioteca de la UPRH
Línea de defensa del patrimonio cultural
“University librarian helps Puerto Rico preserve books”
“Story Lab holds book drive for libraries impacted by Hurricane Maria”
“Hurricane Maria” (AL 152017)
Public libraries of Johnson County team up to help Puerto Rico
“Heritage Responders and Caribbean Museums in Crisis”
“Hurricane Maria: The Aftermath”
Hurricane Maria and Its Lessons on Preservation
“The road to recovery: Puerto Rican museums regroup after hurricane”
“After Hurricane Maria, meet the artists challenging the US media’s disaster narrative” Publication - Article by Erica Dawn Lyne published at Frieze highlighting the efforts of the artistic community in support of eachother as a response to the slow aid been provided by the govenrment and FEMA. The article presents initiatives from Beta-Local, El Departamento de Comida, El Almacén, La Impresora, Taller Malaquita and the special funding "El Serrucho" which distributed $350,000 to artists across Puerto Rico.
EMTs for US Heritage: National Heritage Responders
Strengthening our Response Network
Report: “The Working Conference on Regional Approaches on Disaster Recovery and Heritage Preservation” Publication - Article by Zara Ali and Ashleigh Morris published at the Universiteit Leiden News presents the efforts coordinated by the Caribbean Archives Association (CARBICA), a branch of the International Council on Archives (ICA) to train a group of archivist, librarians and cultural heritage professional in Saint Maarten from July 30 to August 2 about disaster recovery with participants from Saint Martin, Puerto Rico, Dominica and the British Virgin Islands.
“U of I librarian headed to Puerto Rico to help with disaster relief”
“Crisis en los museos del ICP”
“Puerto Rico Post-Maria”
“Boise woman tries to restock empty library shelves In Puerto Rico”
“Bibliotecas, archivos y museos en Puerto Rico luego del embate del Huracán María”
“Transformation and innovation in the wake of devastation: An economic and disaster recovery Plan for Puerto Rico” (draft)
PUL librarians Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez and Brenna Campbell help preserve irreplaceable Puerto Rican collections damaged by Hurricane Maria
“University of Illinois expert helps Puerto Rico libraries”
“How three librarians began to rebuild in a ‘New Puerto Rico’”
HENTF Helps Protect Puerto Rico's Heritage
Heritage Emergency and Response Training (HEART) Event - The Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENTF) and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, in collaboration with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), provided the Heritage Emergency and Response Training to museum professionals in the Island. The training took place at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and topics ranged from collection salvage techniques, evacuation and long term planning for emergency management in a weeklong intensive course.
“Protecting Puerto Rico’s heritage from another disaster”
“Iowa libraries take action for Puerto Rico”
“¿Qué se destruye?”
“UI expert helping Puerto Rico libraries assess, repair hurricane damage”
“Rebuilding Puerto Rican Libraries” and “Preservation Challenges in Puerto Rico”
#HurricaneMaria = devastation = need to do act
“Seizing the Memes of Production: Political memes in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican Diaspora”
Hurricane impacts on Caribbean educational and heritage sites: Urgent needs and long term challenges
Hurricane Maria Lashes Puerto Rico
Student shares photos of the actual state of the 5th floor in UPR-Cayey Library
“American Library Association president-elect to tour Puerto Rico libraries”
“El impacto de María en la comunidad creativa en Puerto Rico”
Conservación del patrimonio
“Hongos y filtraciones, enemigos de las bibliotecas afectadas por María”
“REFORMA Puerto Rico Chapter and Committee updates”
Lin-Manuel Miranda apoya a la Isla con su talento y corazón
20 voces en lucha por Puerto Rico - Marianne Ramírez Aponte, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo

This page is referenced by:

Introduction This project compiles the available resources (in my possession or found through the Web) related to the impact and recovery process of libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions in Puerto Rico. It is not exhaustive, but, hopefully it will provide enough documentation for future generations to understand part of the recovery events that took place immediately after Hurricane Maria or at least inspire other projects that can help tell a more holistic story. There are so many hands and hearts involved in almost a year of activities that I found its dissemination imperative.

Thanks to Dr. Joel Blanco-Rivera from the Escuela Graduada de Ciencias y Tecnologías de la Información (EGCTI) and his students, available links were saved in the Internet Archives to ensure they are preserved for long-term access. Also, videos were preserved using Webrecorder.

Also, thanks to the wonderful support of future library and archives professionals, interviews in Spanish with institutions were performed to gather a deeper insight into the recovery strategies. Again, thanks to Dr. Joel Blanco-Rivera and his students from the Biblioteca Digital Course (August - December 2018) and from my students in the Preservación, Conservación y Restauración de Documentos (January - May 2019).

Navigating the timeline
The timeline is dived into two main sections: Timeline and Interviews. In the timeline, each page represents a month arranged chronologically and where available, a link is provided. The images are screenshots of the original content, a visit to the websites is suggested for full content (this will be a hyperlink at the beginning of the text, according to the three main topics: event, funding or publication). The links will take you to the archive version of the original content to ensure its availability. To view the original content, go to the Details tab and look for "dcterms:isFormatOf". Even though descriptions are in English, most of the content in the links will be in Spanish. In the interviews section, each page contains an interview (in Spanish) from a specific institution. Recordings can be either a video or an audio recording. The author of the interview is listed with the text.

Loading time will depend on Internet connection speed. Be patient. To move around the timeline, use the arrows located on the corners or drag the box to the date or item of your interest. To move between pages, use the navigation menu on the top left corner or the button located at the end of the page.

Exploring visualizations and alternatives paths
The wonderfulness of this tool (Scalar) is its multiple pathways to information and understanding. Each reader can either follow the events by month or use the visualization menu on the top left (the one that looks like a compass) to explore how the content is connected. Also, during the research, I was able to regroup items in four main topics: funding, activities, media coverage and publication, and support. But, it is up to the readers to choose their path (like Cortazar suggested in 1963 with Rayuela).

Fair use & take down notice
All works included in this project are used solely as an educational tool under "Fair Use" as stated under the section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If any copyrighted material needs to be removed, please fill out this form.

Cover image
National Heritage Responders visit to the Library at the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao
Source: Evelyn Milagros Rodríguez

In awe, I leave you a very humble tribute to resilience and solidarity

Puerto Rico's libraries, archives and museums road to recovery: A timeline of events after Hurricane Maria by Hilda Teresa Ayala-González is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.