At 04:05 PM 6/29/2006, Peter Kurilecz wrote: >does anyone know if NARA Archives I has emergency power generators? >and if not why not? wouldn't that be part of a business continuity >program? My understanding from news reports is that external generators, dehumidifiers, and pumps have been brought in. For something like NARA, having contracts in place might be as good/better choice than maintaining generators. There would be a good chance that the generator would be in the basement like the one in the Cohen Building (HHS-North) for VOA. If the flood took out electrical switchgear and HVAC equipment in NARA I, there's a good chance that the genset would be flooded as well. The complexity to maintain a genset is non-trivial, and on-site fuel storage for long periods of time is also problematic and costly, including "polishing" or cleaning the Diesel fuel on a regular basis. Here at the Vignettes Media World Headquarters <smile>, we have a small genset (6 kW), that, oddly you should mention it, we tested this week. We need to update our fuel supply because our old fuel is currently being used up in our fleet (2) of Suburbans <smile>. Our systems are gasoline-, not Diesel-, based and storage for longer than six months is not recommended. We prefer one fuel as much as possible. Our genset can run refrigerator, furnace, dehumidifier, LAN, servers, workstations, lighting, but not the air conditioner nor the stove nor dryer (well it might squeak by ONE of those except the A/C). Removing my tongue from my cheek, broadcasters need generators so they can stay on the air during a disaster and operate in the public interest, convenience, and necessity (to quote the 1934 Communications Act before it was gutted). I was involved with one Los Angeles TV station that ended up with a 1,500 kW Diesel genset installed in its second basement and a week's supply of fuel in an underground tank. What a monster! One major movie lot in LA had a feeder failure and brought in about a half-dozen trailer-mounted gensets to run the operation for a while. If you're serious about this, work with your local Caterpillar or Cummins dealer to provide a level of service guarantee on delivering a genset to you in time of need. Also line up your fuel supplies in advance. One ISP stayed "on the air" in NOLA during Katrina and was offering large sums of money for the delivery of Diesel. It was one of the better blogs at the time. Oh, they got their Diesel. Their servers never went down AFAIK, but they were down to one link to the outside world at one point! I don't know what the timing issues are for damage to archives, but I would think letting someone else have the headache of maintaining the gear would be a better choice than taking it on yourselves. Throw GSA into the middle of things and it's even more complex (not worse, just more complex). Cheers, Richard Richard L. Hess email: [log in to unmask] Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX Detailed contact information: http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>