15
th
International Congress on Archives
Komatsu
www.wien2004.ica.org
6
present.
6 We learned lessons of the Hanshin-Awaji Big Earthquake and introduced new ideas on the
disaster prevention. What we have experienced through this experiment: the speed of fire
spreading, how paper and plastics burned. They were all surprising to us.
(1)Lessons of Hansin-Awaji Big Earthquake
Those who engaged in the preservation and restoration of damaged data by the Hanshin-Awaji
Big Earthquake.
1 Grasp the locating conditions and weak points of the building beforehand. Based on those
information, decide the room design such as working and storage room and fixtures.
2 It's better to take protection measures, such as putting in a preservation box.
3 In addition to take preservation measures, in case of very important data it is recommended to
make copies of them and keep at different place.
4 Safety of visitors are truly important. But that of staff members are also important as well.
5 Building of network among similar organizations is important. Having frequent
communication among network members are also important as well.
(2)It is important to build up the relation to help and visit each other and extend needy hands in
the case of disaster.
We have built up the network also with the local possessor of important data and documents.
We should have the awareness that a disaster will happen some day and to have readiness to
exercise every possible measures to make the damages minimum.
(3)We should know what we can do prior to the happening of a disaster and what we should de
when it happened.
If we can share the lessons of disasters over the generation, we can surely make an effective
disaster prevention plan.
One of the most important role of us who engaged in the preservation work of documents and
