Presentation by Zbyněk Sviták (European Research Centre for Book and Paper Conservation-Restoration, University for Continuing Education Krems, AT) given within the international workshop "Archive material in the Middle East between menace and solidarity" on 24 November 2015 at the ICARUS-Meeting #16 in St. Pölten (AT).

1. Rescue archival documents
EUROPEAN RESEARCH CENTRE FOR BOOK AND PAPER CONSERVATION-
RESTORATION University for Continuing Education Krems, Austria
Patricia Engel

2. EUROPEAN RESEARCH CENTRE
FOR BOOK AND PAPER
CONSERVATION-RESTORATION
-founded in 2010
- implremented into the University in Krems in 2014
- Research to develop strategy, material and methods to preserve the original heritage held
usually in archives, libraries and graphic collections
- Interdisciplinary members

3. Joseph Schirò, Heritage Malta
René Larsen, School of Conservation, Copenhagen
Elissaveta Moussakova, Method and Cyril Library, Sofia
István Kecskeméti, State Archive, Helsinki
Salvador Muñoz Viñas, Politechnical University, Valencia
Marzenna Ciechanska, Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw
Jedert Vodopivec, University and Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana
Dirk Lichtblau, Lichtblau company, Dresden
Georgios Boudalis, Byzantine Museum, Thessaloniki
Flavia Pinzari, Istituto Centrale per il Restauroe la Conservazione del Patrimonio Archivistico e Librario
Laboratorio di Biologia, Rome
Harald Riedl, Biodeterioration, retired, formerly Natural History Museum, Vienna
Guntard Gutmann, Gut Jaidhof
Executive: Patricia Engel, European Research Centre for Book and Paper Conservation-Restoration, Danube University
Krems

4. message
First people then their cultural heritage
Archival documents/books
identification
legitimisation

5. Start from what we know
- European climate
- European infrastructure
- European thinking structure

6. Problems in Europe
- Fire
- Floods
- Mould outbrake
- Earthquakes
- Landslides
- Good first response plans

7. Widen the plans for non European climate
zones/infrastructure
- Tropical (snakes, broken roads, no electricity,
no space to bring material to…)
- etc

8. • Natural desaster
• Man-made desaster

9. • Man made desaster – war
• Army does not assist to rescue archival
material but is the chause of desaster

10. • Install the organisation
• Disseminate the information that we exist
• Cooperation with numerous archives world-
wide to take precautions before desaster
happen

11. Prepare material and human ressorce
- database to hold in evidence helpers
(knowledge, experience and language skills) and
facility
– Drying facilities/devices
– Financial support to move the facility/people
– Quick vaxination
– Courses to prepare helpers etc.

12. My honest thanks to
Dr. Thomas Aigner and his team
My university