May Day

May 1st is MayDay in the archives, library and museum world. It's a day dedicated to preparing for disasters. With all the horrible weather, tornados and wildfires around the country and in Texas, I just had to highlight this day.

According to last year's news release from Heritage Preservation,

Sponsored by Heritage Preservation and other members of the Heritage Emergency National Task Force, MayDay encourages organizations to take one simple step to protect the art, artifacts, records, and historic sites they hold in trust.

Check out their website here.

Last year, I drafted an Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Plan to have in place at the Museum. Other ideas include:

■If you have a disaster plan, dust it off and bring it up to date.
■If you don't have a plan, make a timeline for developing one.
■Get to know your local firefighters and police. Invite them to tour your institution and give pointers on safety and preparedness.
■Identify the three biggest risks to your collection or building (such as dust storm, leaking water pipe, heavy snow, or power failure) and outline steps to mitigate them.
■Evaluate your need for a priority contract with a disaster recovery firm.
■Conduct a building evacuation drill and evaluate the results.
■Update your staff contact information and create a wallet-size version of your emergency contact roster.
■Eliminate hazards such as boxes and furniture in hallways, blocked fire exits, or improper storage of paints and solvents.
■Join forces with nearby institutions and develop a protocol for helping each other in case of a disaster.
■Identify and label priority collections and objects for evacuation during emergencies. Which are most important to your mission, irreplaceable, or most fragile?
■Register for a free course to learn how your institution fits into existing emergency response protocols.

What will YOU do for MayDay?

National Volunteer Week: Priscilla Jeffries

April 10 through 16 is National Volunteer Week. The Library & Archives Center has some great and dedicated volunteers. This is the third in a series of posts about the volunteers here.

Meet Ms. Priscilla Jeffries.
Priscilla Jeffries is the most recent addition to the Library & Archives Center's volunteers. Since starting here in March, she has been cataloguing the photograph collection, creating hard-copy worksheets for the files. Now we have two volunteers working on the same project, so hopefully they will meet in the middle!

Priscilla moved to Midland last May to be closer to family after working for over 25 years teaching World Social Studies in Andrews. Her background is diverse and interesting; she enjoys archeology, traveling, meeting new people, writing and teaching. (She's even broaden her volunteer efforts here at the Museum, being a docent for several school groups recently.) Priscilla is also a world traveler who has been to Spain, Egypt, and elsewhere.


She wants to volunteer at the Library & Archives Center "because of my interest in people, the past, sharing information with others ... and learning from [them]. For me, learning is a pleasure."

National Volunteer Week: Karen Shephard

April 10 through 16 is National Volunteer Week. The Library & Archives Center has some great and dedicated volunteers. This is the second in a series of posts about the volunteers here.

Meet Mrs. Karen Shephard.
(Photo to follow. Karen is out of town so I am not able to get a photo of her!)

Karen Shephard is a new addition to the Libray & Archives Center, starting last November after being recruited by Karen Lowder, a dedicated Santa Rita Club member (and future SRC President). Karen S. has been processing the more difficult back-log archival collections and has been doing a fabulous job! She is currently working on a medium-sized collection of records related to the Permian Basin Petroleum Association from Ed Thompson.

Karen grew up in upstate New York but moved around the United States as part of the Air Force. She has a background in accounting, having worked for several oil & gas business in the Permian Basin, including Exxon, ARCO, Duke Energy and Pure Resources. Her husband Rick and she enjoy going to the theater (I often see them at Midland Community Theater). Karen also enjoys reading, crochet, puzzles and music. We've become fast colleagues and friends!

National Volunteer Week: Morris Bassham

April 10 through 16 is National Volunteer Week. The Library & Archives Center has some great and dedicated volunteers. This is the first in a series of posts about the volunteers here.

Meet Mr. Morris Bassham.

Mr. Bassham has been a dedicated volunteer in the Archives Center since October 2008. He has been cataloguing our large photograph collection; he reviews the card catalogue and completes worksheets for each image. (This process creates a hard copy of the catalogue information to include with the object file.) Periodically, I review his work and add it to the growing collection management database.

Personally, Mr. Bassham has an interesting background. Having grown up in Midland, attending Midland High School, Morris became a petroleum engineer with Sinclair Oil & Gas from which he retired when they merged with ARCO. Not only did he attend Texas Tech University, Mr. Bassham also attended art school in Minneapolis and Sul Ross University. He also spent twenty-one months in the military and became active with the Confederate Air Force for twenty-five years, although he is no longer a pilot. His interest in the military does not end there: he is interested in aviation history, from the Wright Brothers to the Enola Gay, as well as the history of the Alamo and the State of Texas.

Morris is also an active volunteer within the community, having devoted time to the research library at the Commemorative Air Force.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The past month has gone by in a blur!

The Museum is preparing for our fundraiser, the 2011 Hall of Fame gala. This year we are honoring I. Jon Brumley, Dr. Sam Gibbs, William Kleine and the team of Mack Chase and John R. Gray. Invitations are out, thanks to some great and dedicated staff members and volunteers! The event is next Thursday night. Do you have your seat reserved?

The last week of March, I went to Austin for the Outcome Based Evaluation of the Train to Share grant program which I have participated in for the past several years. Team members from all over Texas congregated to discuss individual and organizational successes (and not-so-successes) for the grant as well as offer some reflection and insight into the program itself, with suggestions for the future.

That week also saw the installation of the new exhibit in the Davidson Gallery: Extra Virgin Petrus Oil by Mery Codigna Collet, a Venezuelan artist who uses petroleum and its by-products to highlight serious concerns. Her method is fascinating: she paints on pieces of plastic, then layers them facing the canvas. The result, in my opinion, is a high-gloss painting with depth. You must see them in person! Mery had a successful gallery talk and opening last Tuesday.

Tomorrow, the Archives Center will be undergoing some changes too. With the Train to Share grant, we have been able to purchase a networked server dedicated to the Museum's Library & Archives Center. The server will house the various files and digital objects (photographs) as well as the collection management database which all will be accessed from the computers in the Center.

Among those activities, we have been fielding requests for photographs and research materials. We are definitely staying busy! Of course, May is shaping up to be a busy month too....