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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

Support

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One thing that sticks out during an emergency situation is the solidarity. As Puerto Rico's libraries, archives and museums were emerging from the emergency others were already planning on ways to provide support and helped the recovery process. Through this process 46 institutions with highly unique collections received assessment from the Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENTF and the National Heritage Responders (NHR) and the diaspora exploded with initiatives to aid those in needs.

Contents of this tag:

“Why Thousands of People Around the World Are Mapping Puerto Rico's Buildings and Streets”
Puerto Rico Mapathon for Hurricane Relief
HENTF Assists Archivists In Puerto Rico
Leader of Taino Activity Center
Survey - Mapa de Historia|Map of History
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.
Tweet by Coral Negrón about Guayanilla Public Library
Tweet by Sonia Vázquez
Biblioteca Pública de Guayanilla asks for help after flooding
Puerto Rico deployment of National Heritage Responders (NHR)
Conservators meeting
HENTF Assists Archivists In Puerto Rico
"Colecciones en tiempos de emergencia: ¿Cómo actuar?"
Rebuild Puerto Rico
Visit to the University of Puerto Rico in Humacao Library
Loida García-Febo and Tess Tobin in Libraries Tour (East)
“Bibliotecas de la UPR se capacitan para enfrentar desastres naturales”
“Puerto Rico Post-Hurricane”
Cielo Martín Zayas, volunteer on the road When ArchiRED made a call for volunteers to compile data of damages, Cielo didn’t hesitate. From October 30 to December 5 she was on the road visiting 13 towns on the Northwest of the Island (Arecibo, Barceloneta, Camuy, Dorado, Florida, Hatillo, Lares, Manatí, Quebradilla, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Utuado y Vega Baja) and compiling data for 41 institutions. She also helped follow up with 8 historical archives.
Loida García-Febo in Libraries Tour
Experiencias de adaptación y respuesta: Situaciones de emergencia en centros de información y documentación
“Iowa libraries take action for Puerto Rico”
“Story Lab holds book drive for libraries impacted by Hurricane Maria”
Asamblea Museos de Puerto Rico
Hurricane impacts on Caribbean educational and heritage sites: Urgent needs and long term challenges
Survey “Inventario de necesidades y daños” by ArchiRED”
Loida García-Febo and Tess Tobin in Libraries Tour (Metro)
Daños a biblioteca pública de Arecibo, Nicolás Nabal Barreto
Picking up the pieces: Helping Puerto Rican cultural heritage organizations after hurricanes Irma and Maria
Introducción a la preservación/ Rescate de colecciones, archivos y bibliotecas ante desastres naturales
Survey “Inventario de Necesidades y Daños” by ArchiRED, Reforma, SBPR, and others
Loida García-Febo and Tess Tobin in Libraries Tour (South)
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.
Memoria y humedad
Librarian Sujei Lugo Vázquez receives More books and art supplies for kids in Puerto Rico
Gaylord donates 100 Salvage Wheels and Collection Care Guides
#HurricaneMaria = devastation = need to do act
Mission possible: Emergency response for cultural heritage institutions in Puerto Rico
Solicitan donaciones para la Biblioteca de Yabucoa
American Library Association donates 100 kits of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Due to the high concentration of mold spores in cultural institutions experts advise to proceed the cleaning process only with proper protection. During the months of September to December, these were hard to get locally. Through ALA, Michael Dowling in collaboration with, Miriam Centeno from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, were able to allocate 100 kits which included: nitrile gloves, hair caps, aprons and N95 mask.
HENTF Helps Protect Puerto Rico's Heritage
Beyond the box: Design thinking to rebuild Puerto Rico
Rescate de recursos de información: Manejo de agua y hongos A group of graduate students (future librarians and archivist) from the Escuela Graduada de Ciencias y Tecnologías de la Información (EGCTI) from the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras had the opportunity to practice rescuing affected collections after a catastrophic event. The workshop was offered by Soraya Serra, registrar at the Museo de Arte de Ponce, at the Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín.
“Redacción de propuestas competitivas”
When the unthinkable happens: Reconsidering access and preservation after a catastrophic event
Public libraries of Johnson County team up to help Puerto Rico
Second deployment of the National Heritage Responders (NHR)
"Every drop counts: The recovery of libraries and archives in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria"
Conservación del patrimonio
Bibliotecas, archivos y museos en Puerto Rico luego del embate del Huracán María

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.