Canada’s archives prepare for the worst, but some artifacts at risk: officials

By The Canadian Press

As Brazil mourns the loss of irreplaceable artifacts after a fire ravaged the collection at its national museum, Canadian archivists say some of this country’s heritage treasures could also be at risk.

Cara Krmpotich, director of the University of Toronto’s museum studies program, said dangers like earthquakes, flooding, and forest fires have made emergency preparedness a priority for Canada’s archival spaces, but funding for infrastructure can be hard to come by.

Big institutions like the University of Toronto have reasonably good access to funding, but Krmpotich says smaller museums and municipal heritage sites often struggle to access grants to improve disaster preparedness infrastructure.

At the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, a disaster preparedness plan is in place to minimize damage to its valuable collection in case of a fire or water damage.

Fires and other disasters aren’t unheard of at Canadian institutions — in 1890, a fire destroyed almost 33,000 books in the University of Toronto’s collection.

Earlier this summer, a server crash wiped out the digital archive at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and in 2014 a fire broke out at the Musee de la civilisation in Quebec City.

On Sunday night, flames tore through Brazil’s National Museum, and officials have said much of Latin America’s largest collection of historic and scientific artifacts might be lost.

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